Seventh Seal, The

Allegorical film made in Sweden in 1957, written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in medieval times, it is the story of a knight (Max von Sydow), returned to Sweden from the Crusades, who meets the incarnation of Death. Their confrontation serves as a vehicle for Bergman's philosophical and moral debates, and the film's black-and-white imagery and symbolism have become part of the iconography of modern cinema.