From the Life of the Marionettes

Following an arrest, a nervous breakdown and a self-imposed exile, Bergman's chilling portrait of the human psyche is among his most unsettling works.

When a successful businessman suddenly, impulsively commits a horrific murder, the interrogations and flashbacks peel back the questions to reconstruct the events leading up to his crime and reveal what drove him to such extreme behaviour.

Bergman's fractured narrative reflects his characters' own fragmented selves - and his own feelings of alienation at a time of self-imposed exile. He once claimed that this film "belongs among my best films, an opinion shared by few".