Harriet Andersson is astonishing, in her first film with Bergman, as the irrepressible 17-year-old in love with both Harry – a year older but more circumspect – and her freedom: even when she finds she’s pregnant, she’s reluctant to abandon their idyll in the archipelago for routine Stockholm.
Tender, sensuous, never judgmental, the film counterpoints its realistically sober ending with Monika’s calmly unrepentant gaze to the camera.