Ingmar Bergman is one of the world’s most acclaimed film directors. His latest film (he claims his last), SARABAND, starring two longtime Bergman collaborators, Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson, will be released by Sony Pictures Classics in the United States on July 8, 2005

In SARABAND, Marianne and Johan meet again after thirty years without contact, when Marianne suddenly feels a need to see her ex-husband again. She decides to visit Johan at his old summer house in the western province of Dalarna. And so, one beautiful autumn day, there she is, beside his reclining chair, waking him with a light kiss.

Also living at the summer house are Johan’s son Henrik and Henrik’s daughter Karin. Henrik is giving his daughter cello lessons and already sees her future as staked out. Relations between father and son are very strained, but both are protective of Karin. They are all still mourning Anna, Henrik’s much-loved wife, who died two years ago, yet who, in many ways, remains present among them. Marianne soon realizes that things are not all as they should be, and she finds herself unwillingly drawn into a complicated and upsetting power struggle.

“SARABAND can be seen as a concerto grosso, a concert for full orchestra — only, here, with four soloists,” says Ingmar Bergman. “The drama consists of ten dialogues that follow a particular pattern, and it’s an attempt at analysis of a difficult situation.”

SARABAND is a powerful contemporary drama about the struggle for power, liberation, and reconciliation. Ingmar Bergman has given us a glorious late masterpiece. This is no old man's sentimental valentine, but a work of shocking vitality and robustness, sublimely poised, directed by one of the grandmasters of cinema.

SARABAND is set to open on July 8, 2005. The film runs 107 minutes.