On the hot recommendation of one big moviegoer, I watched the film of the outstanding cameraman who shot most of the films of Ingmar Bergman, who tried his hand several times in the directorial field, Sven Nyukvist “The Bull” / Oxen, 1991. The action takes place in the second half of the 19th century in the Swedish outback. A young
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On the hot recommendation of one big moviegoer, I watched the film of the outstanding cameraman who shot most of the films of Ingmar Bergman, who tried his hand several times in the directorial field, Sven Nyukvist “The Bull” / Oxen, 1991. The action takes place in the second half of the 19th century in the Swedish outback. A young family, in which a young daughter has just been born, is working on a local owner. The year turned out to be poor, by Christmas, the majority of the population of a small parish is already living from hand to hand. And one day, under the influence of the moment, Helge Ruus (Stellan Skarsgård) kills one of his master’s two bulls, which allows them to hold out, moreover, almost no one suspected him, except for one local swindler who rolled up to his wife. The inhabitants of the small parish are God-fearing people who respect the commandments, which from time to time remind them of the local priest (Max von Sydow), whom everyone respects. But after a while, the circumstances develop so that Helge confesses to the priest, he persuades him to go to court, and there Helge is unexpectedly sentenced to life hard labor, which they both, of course, did not expect. The painstaking work of a priest, going on for several years, to collect signatures in support of the cancellation of the sentence, all of them give, except the one whose bull was killed. All this time, the wife of Helge Elfrida lives in poverty, fights for garbage, earns part-time work from local residents, even giving herself to one railway worker for food, gives birth to a boy from him. Life goes on, in the end, the priest manages to persuade the owner of the bull and Helga is released. After small excesses, the life of the heroes is improved, since all the heroes follow the Christian commandments. They lived happily ever after and had 8 children. The film is not bad, but preaching Christian values is a little too straightforward. It's basically a real story. A beautiful acting ensemble, some of the famous Bergman actors participate, but the brilliant cameraman Nyqvist still could not become an equally brilliant director, although the film was nominated for an Oscar.
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