Ordet has been unjustly neglected over the years, mainly because of Carl Th. Dreyer’s adaptation of the same play twelve years later. Molander’s film may lack the austerity of Dreyer’s version, but it has a tense, dramatic atmosphere and the visual imagery at times evokes that of silent cinema. Victor Sjöström is magnificent as the ageing patriarch, clenching his fists to God in the manner of Terje Vigen. In Molander’s version of Ordet the action is set on the West coast of Sweden, traditionally a strong-hold for schartauanism, a very grim form of lutheranism. Shooting took place at the studio in Råsunda and on location in the south-west of Sweden between August and October 1943, and the film was released at Christmas 1943. The war tragically cast its shadow over the film as Munk, a priest involved in the Danish resistance, was killed by orders from the Gestapo in January 1944, just ten days after the film’s release.

Jon Wengström – Svenska Filminstitutet