Back in the repertoire again this year is a beloved silent film classic accompanied by pianist Edward von Past’s dramatic melodies. This year you have the chance to experience Victor Sjöström’s Choir to piano music. A beloved dramatization of Selma Lagerlöf’s book of the same title.

We meet the intoxicated David Holm, who is walking steadily towards his own doom while at the same time mismanaging both his fatherhood and marriage. When, after a fight, he becomes the last person to die before the end of the year, he is visited by the mortician (servant of death who collects the dead). The driver takes Holm on a journey to see what consequences his actions have created for those closest to him.

The Driver was named the best Swedish film of all time when the film magazine FLM listed the best Swedish films in 2022. One of the scenes, where David Holm hacks his way through a locked door with an axe, also inspired Stanley Kubrick in the creation of the horror film The Shining. It doesn’t end there – Ingmar Bergman is said to have considered The Driver as the film that inspired his artistry the most, and above all the film Smultronstället.

– Mia Rogersdotter Gran