Hasse Ekman made more than 40 films between 1940 and 1964, as well as being a famous writer, actor and stage director. During his first ten years as a film director he made finely tuned psychological dramas and elegant comedies at an amazing pace, often experimenting with elaborate narrative structures. Much has been made of the alleged rivalry between Ekman and the young Ingmar Bergman, but they deeply respected and admired each other and both their careers flourished at Terrafilm in the late 40s, under the astute eye of famous independent producer Lorens Marmstedt. Flicka och hyacinter, shot in late 1949 and released in March 1950, is Ekman’s chef d’oeuvre. In the film a writer tries to find out the truth about his enigmatic female neighbour by interviewing people who once knew her. The Citizen Kane like structure is expertly executed (Ekman also wrote the script) and the mystery is solved only in the final moment of the film, without the investigating writer ever finding out.The fear, loneliness and silence of an angst-ridden post-war Europe is reflected by the film’s atmosphere, heightened by the rich contrasts of Goran Strindberg’s black-and-white cinematography.

Jon Wengstrom, Svenska Filminstitutet