On July 30, 2007, cinema lost Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman within hours of each other. This deep dive turns to the Swedish master, whose stark meditations on mortality and the silence of God all began when a nine-year-old traded a set of tin soldiers for a toy magic lantern. We explore the psychology of a man whose punishing childhood forged a complicated genius, drove him into exile, and left an unmatched legacy.

We enter the Uppsala household of a conservative Lutheran minister who locked his son in a pitch black closet, contrast it with the overwhelming imagery of the church, and follow Bergman’s loss of faith at eight, his puppet theater, the 1934 Weimar rally where a teenager was captivated by Hitler, and the shattering revelation of the Holocaust. Then we cover Torment, the astonishing 1957 of The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, his repertory company and trust in Sven Nykvist, the 1976 arrest at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, the breakdown, eight years in Munich, and his return for Fanny and Alexander.

• Why the puppet theater worked like a modern kid disappearing into Minecraft
• How a knight playing chess with Death mirrors a child negotiating with a punishing father
• Tax charges a prosecutor compared to stealing your own car, and the damage they still did
• Five marriages, nine children, chronic insomnia and the private toilets he joked were his legacy
• Posthumous notes for a cannibal film, a pornographic film and a life of Jesus