Shame story
Shame (Swedish: Skammen) is a 1968 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow. Ullmann and von Sydow play Eva and Jan, a politically uninvolved couple and former violinists whose home comes under threat by civil war. They are accused by one side of sympathy for the enemy, and their relationship deteriorates while the couple flees. The story explores themes of shame, moral decline, self-loathing and violence.
9 total · 1 choice · 2 major · 6 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| civilians suffering in war | choice | The viewer is shown how life on a little island was thrown into upheaval when war reached it. Jan and Eva saw, were subjected to, and engaged in a variety of unpleasant activities that happened because of a war over ideology that turned people hateful. |
| husband and wife | major | Jan and Eva |
| lovers' quarrel | major | Jan and Eva variously quarreled over relative trivialities, and then made up again |
| prostitution vs. poverty | minor | Eva had sex with Jacobi in exchange for favors and money because she and Jan were desperately impoverished |
| the desire to have children | minor | Eve told Jan how she yearned to have kids |
| to kill or to spare | minor | Jan could perhaps have save Jacobi by offering up the money, but instead ended up killing him |
| totalitarian dystopia | minor | The blatantly faked propaganda was suggestive of thought policing that the Nazi's and other totalitarian regimes had engaged in a couple of decades earlier. |
| war propaganda | minor | a video was faked for war propaganda purposes |
| what it is like in a combat zone | minor | Jan and Eva found themselves in a war zone and tried to get out, but their car broke down |