AllMovie

The story of director Suzanne Osten's mother Gerd (Malin Ek) is told in this film set against the backdrop of a neutral Sweden in World War II, and the comings and goings of creative talents as they develop their own visions and capacities. Osten's mother had always wanted to produce a film, and although the inspiration was there after a 1939 meeting with Jean-Louis Barrault in Paris, even advice from notables such as Berthold Brecht (though insensitively given) and love affairs that offered some spiritual encouragement, could not stem the gradual and inexorable erosion of her mental stability. By 1944, Gerd was ill enough to be diagnosed as insane. As Gerd destabilizes, her mental afflictions are called forth in avant-garde, surreal visions that move in and out of the reality that carries the woman forward each day.