Task: Question Generation
Input (English): The story is set during 1907â09 (with an epilogue in 1910), in the Swedish town of Uppsala where Alexander (Bertil Guve), his sister Fanny (Pernilla Allwin) and their well-to-do family, the Ekdahls, live. The siblings' parents are both involved in theater and are happily married until their father, Oscar (Allan Edwall), suddenly dies from a stroke. Shortly thereafter, their mother, Emilie (Ewa FrÃ¶ling), marries Edvard VergÃ©rus (Jan MalmsjÃ¶), the local bishop and a widower, and moves into his ascetic home where he lives with his mother, sister, aunt and maids.Emilie initially expects that she will be able to carry over the lavish, joyful qualities of her previous home into the marriage, but realizes that Edvard's harsh authoritarian policies are unshakable. The relationship between the bishop and Alexander is especially cold, as Alexander invents stories, for which Edvard punishes him severely. Edvard immediately confines the children to their bedroom. As a result, Emilie asks for a divorce, which Edvard will not consent to; though she may leave the marriage, legally it will be considered desertion, placing the children in his custody, including the infant to which she will shortly give birth. Meanwhile, the rest of the Ekdahl family has begun to worry about their condition. When Emilie secretly visits her former mother-in-law, Helena (Gunn WÃ¥llgren), to explain what has happened, their friend Isak Jacobi (Erland Josephson), helps smuggle the children from the house. They live temporarily with Isak and his nephews in their store.Emilie, now in the later stages of her pregnancy, refuses to restore the children to the home. Edvard insists she do so. Emilie allows Edvard to drink a large dosage of her bromide sedative. She explains to him, as he shows signs that the medication is working, that she intends to flee the home as he sleeps. He claims that he will follow her family from city to city and ruin their lives, then blacks out. After Emilie gets away, Edvard's dying aunt knocks over a gas lamp, setting her bedclothes, nightgown and hair on fire. She runs through the house in flames to seek Edvard's help, igniting him. Despite the sedative, he is able to get her off him, but dies shortly thereafter.Alexander had fantasized about his stepfather's death while living with Isak. Isak's mysterious nephew, Ismael Retzinsky (Stina Ekblad), explains that fantasy can become true as he dreams it.The story ends on a happy, life-affirming note, with the christening celebration of Emilie's and the late bishop's daughter as well as the extra-marital daughter of Alexander's uncle, Gustav Adolf Ekdahl (Jarl Kulle), and the family maid, Maj (Pernilla August). Later that evening, however, Alexander encounters the ghost of the bishop who knocks him to the floor, and tells him that he will never be free.
Output (English): Question: Who uses his paranormal abilities to help Alexander start a fire in the Bishop's house?, Answer: Ismael Retzinsky