Premiere for Bergman's "Images from the Playground"

© AB Svensk Filmindustri

The film is produced with the support of World Cinema Foundation, the film preserving organization led by Martin Scorsese.

Images from the Playground is the first in a series of two films - written and directed by Stig Björkman - including recordings of Bergman's voice, newly recorded interviews with actors Harriet Andersson and Bibi Andersson, and a special introduction by Martin Scorsese.

© Svenska Filminsitutet

- Images from the Playground is no regular behind-the-screen film. Apart from providing a rich and playful insight to Bergman's creative universe, it is its own creation, with high artistic quality. Also Martin Scorsese is very pleased with the work that Stig Björkman has completed, says Ingrid Dahlberg, CEO of Ingmar Bergman Foundation.

Images from the Playground will be screened for the first time at Cannes Film Festival, May 13-24, in connection with World Cinema Foundation's regular premiere screenings. The film will have its national premiere during Ingmar Bergman International Theatre Festival at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, where Ingmar Bergman Foundation is hosting two international seminars on May 28-29.

The behind-the-screen material is a part of the collection that Bergman donated to Ingmar Bergman Foundation in 2002 and since 2007 registered on UNESCO's "Memory of the World".

Author and director Stig Björkman has published interview books on Ingmar Bergman, Lars von Trier and Joyce Carol Oates. He has also directed the interview film Ingmar Bergman (1971), from the shooting of The Touch.

A great contribution to Images from the Playground has also the film's editor Dominika Daubenbuchel had.

In 1997, Ingmar Bergman was awarded the "Palm of the Palms" in Cannes, as the first and only person in the festival's history so far.

(The editors of Face to Face, Feb 18, 2009)