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Based on a true story of the eighteen-nineties, which has since become legendary, this film is an elegy about a young lieutenant who leaves his wife and children for a circus star. Together, they run away to spend one summer of idyllic happiness. The world they left is locked out of the meadows, woods and streams where they spend most of their happiest hours. Gradually autumn approaches, and as their money runs out and the scandal of adultery creeps in upon them, they are transformed into tragic creatures enmeshed in the realities of love and guilt.
For his fifth film, Bo Widerberg has created a colour moodpiece: in the pastoral beauty of light summer days, the lovers live imprudently on raspberries and cream, green grapes and dark-red wine. The director's imagination has matched the legend, allowing the romantic image to dominate his reveries about the escapists of long ago.
Best Actress Award, Cannes Festival.