It serves the film's study of alienation: sisters Ester and Anna, are travelling home after a journey abroad with Anna's young son Johan, They are travelling during an oppressive heatwave through a country in the middle of a military coup.
External tensions match the internal... Ester has a consumptive illness and is fading, while Anna is losing patience with her assumed role of carer. They stop off in an un-named town, staying in a faded grand hotel.
Bored, Anna ventures into the noisy city, wordlessly picking up a waiter. Her son Johan wanders the gloomy corridors, as lonely as his mother and aunt. The uneasy sibling relationship shatters that night...
Searing performances from Ingrid Thulin and Gunnel Lindblom and young Jorgen Lindstrom illuminate the gloom.
Shelf or charity shop? Not the easiest film to experience but this third in Bergman's loose trilogy on "God's silence" is a keeper...
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