Silent Cinema

Gösta Berling’s Saga

+ intro by writer Paul Joyce

Mauritz Stiller’s epic adventure of the frozen north flies by – as fast as a sled on a frozen lake that’s pursued by wolves.

  • Director

    Mauritz Stiller

  • With

    Lars Hanson, Gerda Lundequist, Greta Garbo, Jenny Hasselqvist

  • Sweden 1924. 206min + interval

  • Digital

  • With live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney

Based on the celebrated 1891 novel by Selma Lagerlöf, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature, Gösta Berling’s Saga traces the journey of a defrocked priest and his search for redemption. Along the way, three women fall in love with him, the last played by a radiant young Garbo. Beautifully shot by Julius Jaenzon, the chase sequence across a frozen lake remains one of the most spectacular set pieces of silent cinema.

Restored by the Swedish Film Institute in 2022.