A dazzling, magical journey through childhood, family and imagination, as two siblings face love, loss and a haunting new world.

Southend CineScene Presents: FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982)

Step into the sumptuous, dreamlike world of Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, a richly textured story of childhood, family, imagination and the ghosts that linger between them.

Set in early 20th-century Sweden, the film follows siblings Fanny and Alexander as they grow up surrounded by a warm and theatrical extended family. Their childhood is filled with lavish celebrations, eccentric relatives, stories, performances and an almost magical sense of possibility.

But when their beloved father dies and their mother remarries a stern bishop, the children are suddenly taken from the colourful world they know and into a far more austere and oppressive household. Alexander, in particular, begins to blur the boundaries between reality and imagination as he struggles to make sense of the world around him.

Beautifully shot and filled with candlelit interiors, elaborate costumes, sumptuous rooms and Bergman’s distinctive blend of realism and the supernatural, Fanny and Alexander is both an intimate family drama and a sweeping celebration of the power of imagination.

Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film, it remains one of Bergman’s most visually extraordinary and deeply personal films.

Description supplied by the event organiser.