Winter Light story
Winter Light (Swedish: Nattvardsgästerna, lit. 'The Communicants') is a 1963 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Bergman regulars Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin and Max von Sydow. The film follows Tomas Ericsson (Björnstrand), pastor of a small rural Swedish church, as he deals with an existential crisis and his Christianity.
16 total · 4 choice · 5 major · 7 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| Christianity | choice | the story centered on a Christian priest and his existential crisis |
| coping with a crisis of faith | choice | Tomas was a priest but came to doubt God's existence |
| coping with an existential crisis | choice | Tomas had a deep existential crisis related to evil and religion |
| despair | choice | Jonas despair to such an extent that he killed himself; Tomas had a similar crisis of fate, do did not go to such extreme lengths |
| atheism | major | Tomas explained how he went from belief to disbelief |
| is there a higher power | major | Tomas, the priest, pondered whether there really was God |
| love | major | the story centered around different types of love (or lack thereof) and ideas about love relating to God |
| suicide | major | Jonas spoke about contemplating suicide; after speaking to Tomas, he shot himself |
| the problem of evil | major | the priest and Jonas both could not reconcile the evil they saw in the world with the idea of God (though Tomas' problems went deeper still) |
| coping with suicide | minor | Karin was bereaved when Jonas shot himself and was sad to hear of it. |