Cast

Lil Terselius, Stefan Ekman, Katarina Gustafsson, Chatarina Larsson, Birgitta Andersson

awards

Chicago IFF 1977 – Silver Hugo; Guldbagge Award 1978 – Best Actress

Film description

In this portrait of the Scandinavian Victorian era, 22-year-old Arvid Stjärnblom, an incipient music critic, falls in requited love with the lovely Lydia Stille while visiting her father’s summer home. The young man is not ready for marriage, mainly for material reasons, but he also does not want to stop pursuing his professional ambitions. His love agrees to wait. The Alfred Dreyfus affair plays background to this story. While numerous intellectuals attempt to expose the hypocrisy of European society, the intellectual ferment does not change traditional mores, in which men possess capital and women their bodies.

When Lidia’s father suddenly dies, the girl is forced to choose among matrimonial offers, because a woman of her social standing cannot work to support herself. Breien shows how difficult to remove are the masks forced upon us by cultural norms.