Review of Wild Strawberries (2012) by Devon B — 11 Oct 2010

78 year old Dr. Isak Borg is receiving an honorary degree at Lund cathedral tomorrow, as he himself explains in the opening scene of "Wild Strawberries", a film by Ingmar Bergman. In the very same scene, he also claims "in our relations with other people we mainly discuss and evaluate their character and behavior, this is why I have withdrawn from nearly all so-called relations. This has made my old age rather lonely". It also doesn't help his isolation that he's a self-described "pedant". Rather than fly to Lund with his surly house keeper (and quite possibly, only friend), he chooses to drive the 14 hour trip with his daughter-in-law, a bluntly open woman who regards her "uncle" (as she calls him) as something of a fraud: a man whose benevolent exterior hides a selfish and ruthless old man. But why is Dr. Borg so cold and distant? As the film progresses, the doctor's past is revealed in a series of dreams and memories (and the line where one begins and the other ends is often blurred). The events that went into creating the loneliness of Dr. Borg's life are pulled back like the pedals of a flower.

When confronted with the looming shadow of death, Dr. Borg doesn't recall his lifetime of dedication to humanitarian work but instead re-lives the longlost loves and regrets of his youth. When his brother stole his betrothed away, the first instance that really toughened up the naive young Isak. All of Dr. Borg's flashbacks and hallucinatory dreams are voyeuristic in nature. He calls out to his one-time fiance Sara, only to watch in silence the moment when, while picking wild strawberries, she's swept off her feet by his ne'er-do-well brother. Maybe it's all psychological, in that it comes from one of his most deep-seated humiliations at the hands of his wife, dead for nearly 20 years. Or maybe it's just part of his lineage, as it is with his 96 year old mother, who's only purpose in life is to deny her great grandchildren their inheritance by staying alive, and his son Evald, who hates his life so much his only desire in life is a quick death. Bergman fleshes out the life of Dr. Isak Borg while at the same time bringing us more intimately closer to the universal fear of death. How do we live our lives and what regrets linger long after the people we love have turned to dust? Wild Strawberries is somehow both haunting and warm; in the end, we can find comfort in ourselves if our happy memories out-number our bad.