23/02/2012 - UK-based Indian director Dheeraj Akolkar wil portray one of the great couples in film history which made 12 films together

Liv Ullmann is a Norwegian actress, Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director – Dheeraj Akolkar is an Indian documentarist living in London, and Rune H. Trondsen is the Norwegian producer currently preparing Liv and Ingmar, depicting one of the great couples in the history of filmmaking. The Nordic Stories €1 million feature-length documentary supported by the Norwegian Film Institute will be released in the autumn.

Ullmann and Bergman met in 1965, they were a family for five years, had one child (Linn), and made 12 films together, including the award-winning Persona (1966), Shame (1968), Scenes from a Marriage (1973), Face to Face (1976), Autumn Sonata (1978). In 1996, she directed his script for Private Confessions and in 2000 for Faithless, which was launched in competition at Cannes.

46 years later Akolkar, who has always been fascinated by their life and work, went with Ullmann and a film crew to Bergman’s house on the Fårö island, where she spoke about all aspects of their relationship that was charged with both love and hatred, and how their feelings for each other were reflected in the films they created.

"Everything I have learned about acting, closeness to the camera, love, respect, and work ethics I have learned from Ingmar," said Ullmann, when the University of Trondheim celebrated her 70th birthday with the symposium, 'An auteur star – or a star as an auteur?'. (She holds an honorary doctorate at Trondheim).

She also recalled when she turned down the mother’s role in Fanny and Alexander, which was intended to be Bergman’s last film. “You have now lost your first born’s right,” he replied, and they didn’t speak for a year. When Bergman was dying on Fårö, she went to say goodbye: “I don’t know if he knew I was there, but it was important for me,” she explained. The film is sold by Sweden’s Svensk Filmindustri International.