The story
About Fanny and Alexander
Sweden, 1907. The Ekdahl family, who run the town theatre, gather for a long, lavish Christmas Eve: a nativity play on the stage, presents under the tree, a big dinner and a dance round the table. Days later the children's father dies, their mother marries a stern bishop, and the warm, crowded family home gives way to a grey, strict household where Alexander's imagination becomes both his defence and his danger. The first act is one of cinema's great Christmases; the rest of the film leaves the season behind.
The CineClaus verdict
Not a Christmas film, but it holds one of the finest Christmases ever put on screen.
The first hour is a nativity play, a tree, a long dinner and a family dancing round the table by candlelight. Then the father dies, the mother marries a bishop, and the film turns grey, strict and haunted.
Come for the opening act and be ready for the rest. It is long, subtitled and, after the party, not cosy at all.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: not for children: expect very strong language, sex and domestic abuse, and a long, bleak second half.
Content advice & accessibility
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official 15 certificate, and never looser than it.