Wood Painting

A knight returning home with his squire Jons after a ten-year crusade to the Holy Land finds a country paralyzed by the Black Death, a newly burned witch, a blacksmith and his runaway wife, an actress, a Virgin Mary with her child and the knight's faithful wife. All approaches the realm of the dead in a single "tragicomic long dance of death". The narrator begins with: "In a church in southern Småland is our spectacle painted on the wall just to the right of the entrance to the porch. The unknown painter has on the church wall depicted a number of people in formal long dance toward death."

Directed by Lennart Olsson, Wood Painting leans on a strong ensemble — Oscar Ljung, Marianne Wesén, Ulla Akselson — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about drama titles of 1963.