TEHRAN- The Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) cinematheque will screen “A Dream Play” directed by the Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter Ingmar Bergman on Wednesday. 

Set for 5 p.m., the screening will be followed by a review session with Abbas Ghaffari as the host and theater critic Alireza Naraghi, ISNA reported.

The made-for-television film, made in 1963, was Bergman’s first production of the Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s namesake fantasy play.

First published in 1902, the play remains one of Strindberg's most admired and influential dramas, seen as an important precursor to both dramatic Expressionism and Surrealism.

The primary character in the play is Agnes, a daughter of the Vedic god Indra. She descends to Earth to bear witness to the problems of human beings. She meets about 40 characters, some of them having a clearly symbolical value (such as four deans representing theology, philosophy, medicine, and law) and is herself enmeshed in a wrenching marriage. 

After experiencing all sorts of human suffering (for example poverty, cruelty, and the routine of family life), the daughter of gods realizes that human beings are to be pitied. Only the Poet, who has created the dream, seems unaffected by human suffering. Finally, she returns to Heaven and this moment corresponds to the awakening from a dream-like sequence of events.

August Strindberg (1849-1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography, history, cultural analysis, and politics during his career, which spanned four decades. 

A bold experimenter and iconoclast throughout his life, he explored a wide range of dramatic methods and purposes, from naturalistic tragedy, monodrama, and historical plays to his anticipations of expressionist and surrealist dramatic techniques. From his earliest work, Strindberg developed innovative forms of dramatic action, language, and visual composition. 

He is considered the “father” of modern Swedish literature. In Sweden, Strindberg is known as an essayist, painter, poet, and especially novelist and playwright, but in other countries, he is known mostly as a playwright.

Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time. His films have been described as “profoundly personal meditations into the myriad struggles facing the psyche and the soul”.

Among his most acclaimed works are “The Seventh Seal” (1957), “Wild Strawberries” (1957), “Persona” (1966), and “Fanny and Alexander” (1982), which were included in the 2012 edition of Sight & Sound's Greatest Films of All Time. He was also ranked No. 8 on the magazine's 2002 Greatest Directors of All Time list.

SS/