"The Seventh Seal" (1957) is one of the masterpieces by the legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007). The film, which is in the surrealist drama genre, is considered one of the classics in the history of world cinema. After spending ten years in crusade service, Antonius Block, a knight, gets tired of it and returns to Sweden, his native land. When he arrived, the plague called Black Death was slowly getting spread in the country. The plot of the film is Antonius' doubts, searches, confessions, what he sees, his resistances, discoveries and his end.

Faith, religion, God, life, spirituality, morality and death come as themes in the film.

(Incidentally, the movie "Ee. Ma. Yow." the Malayalam movie has some similarities to 'The Seventh Seal', including the game the Knight played with death at the beach, in the beginning of the film).

Each character in The Seventh Seal approaches life in a different way. Antonius is both a believer and a skeptic.

"What will become of us who want to believe but cannot? And what of those who neither will nor can believe? Why can I not kill off this God within me? Why must he live on inside me in this painful, humiliating way when I want to tear him out of my heart? Why does he remain a mocking reality that I can't shake off?

What I need is not faith, but certainty. I want God to reach out to me, show his face, speak to me."

"We carve an idol out of our fear and call it God"

"Faith is a heavy burden you know? It is like loving someone out in the dark who never comes, no matter how loud you call".

Theae are his words during a confession he makes. There is goodness in him; but he is indifferent to the sufferings of others.

His trainee, the 'Squire', is the one who receives training under him aspiring for knighthood. His name is Jons. He is young and robust. He has been on the Crusades with his master for ten years. He doesn't have much of a faith in God. But unlike his master, he would help anyone he can.

"If everything is imperfect in this imperfect world, love is most perfect even in its imperfection", he can be seen as saying.

There is this man named Raval who once left the seminary. He is a complete criminal now. He kills, steals, cheats, and sexually assaults women and physically abuses men.

The painter, the monk, the people you see in the tavern, the churchyard, and the people you see on the street are all afraid of death. They try to run away from it. But they are also indifferent people when it comes to be about others.

The blacksmith Plog's wife and the play-director are lustful people. They are double-faced. They get together and run away.

Plog is passionate about his wife Liza. He cannot live without her. He says he would kill her and the 'actor' at once. In reality, he is a simple man.

Bergman presents the three distorted faces of the institutional Church. The Crusades; and carving an idol of God out of fear. It is trying to keep people within religion by showing them the hell. Such a Church doesn't look at life and the human body positively. It encourages hyper-emotionality and negative spirituality through physical torture. At the same time, on the other hand it carries out the Crusades and the Inquisition! It's because the Church cannot see the living God and the moaning God in the people.

Jof and Mia are actors in the play. They have a one-year-old child - Mikael.

They have no anxieties about life or death. They are full of love, compassion, and simplicity.

Jof see visions. Although Mia doesn't fully believe it!

Jof must be Joseph and Mia must be Maria and Mikael the child: the three standing for the Holy Family.

Antonius is on the way to his castle in the north. The spreading plague (death) may not reach there. One can make oneself safe there. He has a liking for Jof, Mia, and their baby, and he invites them to go along with him to his Castle to secure themselves from the plague and death.

They have to travel the dark stormy night through a dense forest in order to make it to the Castle.

There are some others too, invited by Squire Jons. A young mute girl he saved from a rape. The blacksmith Plog; Plog's wife Lisa, whom he rescued along the way.

A young woman who resembles Joan of Arc is being taken to be burned at the stake on charges of having had dealings with the devil. Antonius wants to know from her whether she has actually seen the devil. If he can encounter the devil, he thinks that the devil can definitely speak to him something about God.

Although he realized that she wasn't guilty, he declies to intervene to save her. The Inquisitors burn her.

That night, Jof sees Antonius playing chess with death, and sneaks away from him in their carriage with Mia and their child.

Antonius and his companions, who were headed to the castle to save themselves, arrive at the castle in the middle of the night. The Knight's wife was still awake there. While they were at the table, there is a knock at the front door of the castle. Certainly, it was death. They all surrender to him.

At the dawn, Jof and Mia wake up on an unfamiliar bright and beautiful shore. No forest around, no darkness - only the shining bright morning.

Far away, on the horizon, Jof sees a vision: Death, leading the six of them, leading in a linear dance of death- not in a circle dance.

"They dance away from the dawn in a solemn dance, away to the dark country, while the rain runs down over their faces and washes away their salty tears."