This is actually a road film with a time span of one day, but through dreams it shows several important events in the protagonist's life. The day starts with a nightmare (pinless watch, a faceless man, being pulled by myself in the coffin), ends with a sweet dream (pulled by my first love to find my parents); starts with pain (returning to my childhood hut, thinking of the first love abandoned by my first love) myself), ending with happiness (the girl with the same name and appearance as her lover Sara said to herself you're the one I love); starting with disagreement (with daughter-in-law and son), ending with ambiguity (with maid and confidant). While driving to Lund to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, the old doctor Isak also realized self-examination and awakening, as well as final redemption.
The film is rich in content, and different people naturally have different interpretations. In my opinion, the monologue of the protagonist at the beginning of the film reflects the most important theme - the relationship between people. He mentioned his son, mother, wife, housekeeper, these are the closest people, but he chose to avoid them because he couldn't understand some of their personalities and practices, or he was hypocritical in order to maintain his moral image. Solitary, solitary. This withdrawn and stubborn character even spreads in his family, which has nothing to do with academic status - even if he is admired by the people, it cannot fill the loneliness and indifference in his heart. In the end, the director asked the old professor to take the initiative to talk to his son and say sorry to the housekeeper, so that their relationship began to dissolve. In fact, it was the director's own wish, because he and his parents had always been estranged and could not get along well. Cherish the people around him, and pray for forgiveness and tolerance. This is probably the message he most wants to convey to the audience. Loneliness is the greatest punishment for a person.
Another highlight of this film is the performance of several dreams. You will find that the people and things in the dreams are real and unreal, profound and absurd. It turned out that someone had done this 40 years earlier than "Mulholland Drive". Someone has explained in depth why the Isak in the dream is not a youth like the others, but I think it is simple and reasonable - people always dream of themselves when they are dreaming. Also, the real Sara that Isak meets in real life, like his past dream lover, is wandering between two male friends, which is somewhat of a stream of consciousness technique.
As for the title of the film, the Wiki says wild strawberry is a Swedish colloquialism meaning an underappreciated treasure somewhere. I think it's probably referring to those neglected emotions and acts of kindness.
The film finally won the Berlin Golden Bear Award and the Golden Globe Award for best foreign language film, well deserved.
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