Persona (1966)

Persona (1966) is a stark, hypnotic psychological drama that follows a young nurse, Alma, who is assigned to care for Elisabet Vogler, a celebrated actress who has mysteriously stopped speaking after collapsing on stage during a performance. Sent to a secluded seaside house for convalescence, the two women spend long, intimate hours together: Alma talks — at first to break the silence, then to confess private truths — while Elisabet remains largely unresponsive. As their time together lengthens, boundaries erode and identities begin to blur; Alma finds herself drawn into, and ultimately absorbed by, the silence and presence of her patient. Watching Persona is an intense, often disorienting experience. The film is spare and elliptical, built from long close-ups, abrupt visual juxtapositions and dreamlike interludes that refuse easy explanation. Viewers are invited to inhabit the characters’ inner lives rather than follow a conventional plot: you will feel the slow creep of empathy and obsession, the thrill and unease of watching two selves collide, and the chilling ambiguity of who is speaking for whom. Persona is as much an exploration of performance, identity and intimacy as it is a piece of visual poetry — unsettling, beautiful, and deliberately unresolved, leaving you thinking about voice, silence and the self long after the credits roll.

Actors: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Runtime: 85 min

Genres: Drama, Thriller

8.1 /10 86 /100 8.1 /10 8.3 /10