The Monastery of Sendomir

Two knights lodging at a monastery hear the past of one of the monks. The man once owned this castle. He tells in his own words how he lost his wife and child, and as he tells it, what happened turns out not to be what they assumed. The film is not interested in tragedy. It is interested in the direction of a confession: telling his story, the man is in fact defending himself, and at a certain point the audience stops trusting the narrator. That lifts it out of being a simple story of jealousy. The form is Swedish silent cinema: natural locations, hard contrast, wide landscape shots and few intertitles. Sjöström carries feeling with light rather than gesture. Victor Sjöström directed, from a story by Franz Grillparzer. He was the leading figure of Swedish cinema in this period and would leave for Hollywood a few years later. Tore Svennberg plays the monk and Tora Teje the woman. Who it is for: viewers who like Nordic silent cinema and framed narratives. Who it is not for: anyone wanting pace. Short as it is, the film moves heavily and rests entirely on a single telling.