Reconcile your past before you pass

Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället, Swedish; 1957)

Directed and Written by: Ingmar Bergman

After a certain age, we of the older generation would tend to walk around with a chip on our shoulder, are conceited with ourselves, thinking of others as not worthy of our acquaintance. We think that whatever we had done was just right and it helped to pave our own and other peoples' life. An occasional smack on the head and humbling experience will definitely make us more grounded. Sometimes, it is important for us to accept the fact and make amends to be at peace with our love ones!

This, in essence is the gist of the movie by the legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.
Prof Isak Borg is a cranky 78 year old widower who lives alone with his maid in his big house. He is short tempered sharing a love-hate relationship with his live-in old maid (and it is nothing romantic) of many years. He is to be feted with an honorary doctorate from University of Lund for his 50 years in medical field.

At the last minute, after a bizarre dream where he crawled out of a coffin, he decides to drive to his destination instead of his initial plan to fly. His daughter-in-law, Marianne, who is going through a rough patch with her husband (Isak's only child), decides to follow Isak.

Along the journey, they meet characters that remind Isak of his childhood and adulthood to make himself aware that he had not been the best person in the world.

Prof Isak decides to stop, along the way, at a summer house where he used to spend his summer as a child. Taking a siesta under a tree, he is cradled back to his childhood where he is a spectator to all the happenings of a particular summer. His cousin, Sara, who was romantically linked to Isak had a tough time trying to choose between the smart Isak and his fun filled outgoing brother, whom she finally chose.
They (Isak and Marianne) pick up a trio of teenagers who were hitchhiking to Italy. Just as in his case, the girl of the trio has a tough time deciding to choose between a minister and a fun filled guy.

They later have to pick up a feuding couple (a fretfully irritating husband and a mentally unstable wife) after they crashed into their car. Isak sees himself in the couple and realises how painful he must have been to his wife. The feuding couple were such a nuisance that they had to be dropped half-way in the middle of nowhere! In another forty wink episode, he visualizes his wife engaged in an extramarital liaison.

Isak also stops at a gas station whose owners sing praises of Isak when he was a general practitioner in the country side.
Stopping at his mother's house, Isak realizes that his fussy temperament must have come from his annoyingly domineering mother. He later sees the same trait in his son (Marianne's husband).

The conferring event turned out to be such a non-event after all. He feels not so proud of his achievement. Back after the event, in his son's home, he gets the good news that his son and wife have reconciled their differences.
Isak also expresses his apologies and appreciation to his maid who had put up with all his temper and idiosyncrasies.
He goes to bed, a happy man. He does not die in his sleep but sleeps with a smile painted on his face. He had made peace with himself and the people around him.
A good intelligent show with many issues close to our heart which needs pondering...

Our social relationships are limited, most of the time, to gossip and criticizing people's behavior. This observation slowly pushed me to isolate from the so-called social life. My days pass by in solitude.