page_title: Fanny and Alexander
section_title: Christianity and Judaism
hierarchical_section_title: Fanny and Alexander / Themes and interpretations / Christianity and Judaism
context_page_description: Fanny and Alexander is a 1982 historical drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. The plot focuses on two siblings and their large family in Uppsala, Sweden during the first decade of the twentieth century. Following the death of the eponymous children's father, their mother remarries a prominent bishop who becomes abusive towards Alexander for his vivid imagination.
  Bergman intended Fanny and Alexander to be his final picture before retiring, and his script is semi-autobiographical. The characters Alexander, Fanny and stepfather Edvard are based on himself, his sister Margareta and his father Erik Bergman, respectively. Many of the scenes were filmed on location in Uppsala. The documentary film The Making of Fanny and Alexander was made simultaneously with the feature and chronicles its production.
  The production was originally conceived as a television miniseries and cut in that version, spanning 312 minutes; a 188-minute cut version was created later for cinematic release, although this version was in fact the one to be released first. The television version has since been released as a complete film, and both versions have been shown in theaters throughout the world.
context_section_description: The story opens with exploring celebrations of the Swedish Christmas, which is expressed through "colors, sounds, movements, music" that Cineaste critic Royal Brown called "life-affirming, pagan Christianity". This is starkly contrasted with Edvard's Christianity, which is dictated by asceticism, authoritarianism and concern with death, with Alexander finding his new home a bare, cold prison. Professor Freddie Rokem wrote that, in contrast to Edvard's "rigorous and sterile" Protestantism, the Ekdahl Christmas party can include the Jewish Isak, as he is a dear friend of matriarch Helena Ekdahl, and this friendship is "utopian". While at Isak's, his nephew Aron Retzinsky brings out a puppet of God, or deus ex machina, to which Alexander reacts with terror; he then tries to play down that fear, and is left to wonder how seriously to take the supernatural. Author Harry Perridon argued that when Alexander declares God "is a shit", he means God in Christianity, associating the deity with suffering in the world. After this point, true miracles in Bergman's universe have to come from a different source, Perridon wrote.
  The depiction of Jews in Sweden revolves around Isak, which academic Rochelle Wright argues is "far more nuanced" than in Bergman's previous The Touch (1971). Isak is not completely assimilated, but his presence in Sweden is presented as positive, as he stands for imagination, "magic and mystery", Wright wrote. Erland Josephson, who played Isak, described his performance as a stereotyped portrayal of a Jew, but with mystical and tragic elements, drawing on Jewish people and their history. Hayes argued that with its take on "time and space", the story hinted at Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah. The light that engulfs Isak when he screams after being beaten by Edvard calls on the light of the Kabbalah to vanquish evil, Hayes hypothesised. The scream may have invited "spiritual intervention", allowing the children's escape by rendering them invisible in Isak's trunk, while the children seemingly appear lying on the floor to Edvard. Törnqvist hypothesised that Jewish pantheism replaces Christian belief in "grace and punishment" in the story. Royal Brown argued that Isak's "cabbalistic magic and animism" is closer to the Ekdahls' Christianity than to Edvard's.
  Törnqvist identified Ismael as "one of the more enigmatic features" of Fanny and Alexander, commenting on the character as a fusion of elements. Ismael speaks the Finno-Swedish language, and is androgynous, being a male character played by a woman, Stina Ekblad. Ismael also says to Alexander, "Perhaps we are the same person". Author Daniel Humphrey also commented in Ismael's androgyny, conveying "queerness and foreignness" but presented as spiritually identical to Alexander. Additionally, Humphrey commented on the name, with Ishmael of the Bible being a bastard son of Abraham and progenitor of the Arab people, considered "paradigmatic" by Christians and Jews alike. A Dream Play author Strindberg had taken interest in the Ishmael character. Törnqvist also identified Ismael as matching Hamlet in education, intelligence, real or feigned insanity and anti-social nature.
  Hayes commented on the way Ismael holds Alexander, remarking it was "Alexander's erotic encounter with a man/a woman/himself". Critic Robin Wood and Richard Lippe argued Ismael directly replaces Oscar, dismissed by Alexander as not serving a purpose; Ismael instead brings danger and sexual ambiguity: Wood and Lippe observed Ismael touching Alexander and kissing Aron. The role of Ismael and Alexander's ritual in Edvard's death is uncertain: Ismael speaks of what will happen in the future in describing Edvard's death, but it can all be logically explained, with a police officer informing Emilie the death is legally accidental.
caption: Carl Larsson's Julaftonen, a depiction of the Swedish Christmas in the 1900s.
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