Torment
Hets
1944
Palme d'Or — 1st Cannes Film Festival
- Director:
- Alf Sjöberg
- Studio:
- Svensk Filmindustri
- Starring:
- Stig Järrel, Alf Kjellin, Mai Zetterling, Gösta Cederlund, Olof Winnerstrand
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A sadistic Latin teacher nicknamed "Caligula" terrorizes his students at a Stockholm school, and secretly controls Bertha, a young shopgirl, through fear and violence, unaware that his student Jan-Erik has fallen for her too. As Jan-Erik's grades collapse and his obsession with Bertha deepens, Caligula's abuse escalates until Bertha turns up dead, with only circumstantial evidence pointing to the teacher who cannot be touched by the school's cowardly authorities. Ingmar Bergman's first produced screenplay, directed by Alf Sjöberg, uses the schoolroom tyranny as a broader indictment of institutional complicity with abuse.