THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
This week, we’re going way back in time to 14th Century Sweden to follow the trials and tribulations of a war-weary knight and his cunning squire as they return to a homeland in the grips of a foul pestilence.
Antonius Block is a disillusioned knight who has spent over 10 arduous years trawling through the snake and heathen infested jungles of the New World on a bloody crusade to spread Christianity.
After barely surviving his mission, Antonius wakes up on a stark beach on his first day back in Sweden to find that Death himself has come for him.
In order to make it home to see his beloved wife, the knight challenges Death to a game of chess. Death agrees but stipulates that for every pawn lost to him, someone connected to the knight will die.
The knight and his squire befriend a troupe of circus performers and they all make haste across a landscape fraught with crooked priests, witches, haunted forests, the sinister miasma of the dreaded plague and Death scraping at their heels.
The Seventh Seal is a harrowing tale, which challenges the existence of a "higher" power, whilst exploring the dark side of the human condition.
Absolutely mesmerising.
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Review by Jordan Bloomer
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Here's the trailer: