Bergman, Tarkovsky, Miyazaki
Film makers and artists have always been spellbound by the unique light and landscape of the island of Gotland. Ingmar Bergman, Andrej Tarkovskij, Kenneth Branagh, Roy Andersson, Hayao Miyasaki and Suzanne Osten to mention a few. Gotland has a unique film heritage that is constantly being refilled with new productions that puts Gotland on the map.
Ingmar Bergman
Even though Ingmar Bergman lived in many other places, Gotland and the small island of Fårö was the place where he chose to both build his house and to shoot 6 of his feature films. Initially he was sceptical when he came to look for a location for his feature Through a glass darkly but he was overwhelmed with the meeting of the island. “If one wished to be solemn, it could be said that I had found my landscape, my real home; if one wished to be funny, one could talk about love at first sight.” (Ingmar Bergman, quote from Laterna Magica).
The importance of Fårö shows in the fact that Bergman shot six features, one drama series and two documentaries on the small island. While shooting Persona in 1966 he also bought land and built his house on Fårö. He came there as often as he could and moved there permanently in 2003. He came to stay and was buried next to the church of Fårö with a clear view of the ocean.
Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Tarkovskij, Russias most famous director, shot his last feature The Sacrifice on Gotland in 1985. The main character of the movie is Erland Josephson and the movie is shot by cinematographer Sven Nykvist. It won the grand prix in Grand Prix in Cannes 1986. The movie was originally intended to be produced at Fårö but since Tarkovskij was a Russian resident and Fårö was a military reserve he was not permitted access. The movie is Tarkovskijs artistic testament about humanity and a catastrophe that threatens to extinct the human race.
Hayao Miyazaki
In 1971 Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki travel to Europe to get inspiration for an anime version of Pippi Longstocking. The city of Visby on Gotland was one of the goals of his journey. The Pippi project was unfortunately put on ice but when Miyazaki started working on his next feature the inspiration came in use. The movie called Kikis express delivery from 1989 revolves around a young witch by the name Kiki that with her cat and broomstick moves from the country to the city of Koriko and starts a delivery service. Miyazaki is one of the worlds most famous anime directors with movies as Spirited away, Totoro, Ponyo and others in his portfolio. Because of this quite a few people travel to Visby just to be able to see the places that are depicted in the movie.
