they said you were mentally healthy, but your madness is the worst - Ingmar Bergman

Reality is perhaps not at all what I imagine. Perhaps it doesn't exist, in fact. Perhaps it only exists as a longing.

Alexander Ekdahl, is eleven years old, and lives in the small Swedish city of Uppsala. He lives in a large townhouse, divided into four splendid apartments, with his sister, Fanny, his parents, his two uncles and aunts, his cousin, his grandmother, and a number of servants.

What matters most of all in life is being able to make that contact with another human. Otherwise you are dead, like so many people today are dead… But if you can take that first step toward communication, toward understanding, toward love, then no matter how difficult the future may be – and have no illusions, even with all the love in the world, living can be hellishly difficult – then you are saved. This is all that really matters, isn’t it?