Port of Call

Original title: Hamnstad

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A suicidal factory girl out of reformatory school, anxious to escape her overbearing mother, falls in love with a sailor who can't forgive her past.A suicidal factory girl out of reformatory school, anxious to escape her overbearing mother, falls in love with a sailor who can't forgive her past.A suicidal factory girl out of reformatory school, anxious to escape her overbearing mother, falls in love with a sailor who can't forgive her past.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

2.9K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The book which Gösta reads on his bed is 'Resor utan mål' ('Journeys Without Destination') by Swedish author and future Nobel laureate in Literature (1974) Harry Martinson. Martinson was, indeed, a sailor before becoming an author, and the book, published in 1932 as Martinson's first prose volume (his greatest fame would come for his poetry), was a document of his own experiences as one, written at twenty-eight after he had given up the sea due to a combination of lack of employment and a bout of tuberculosis. A sailor like Gösta would indeed have found much interest in the book, as it dealt realistically with the life of a sailor from his country living a life very similar to his own. The book itself has sadly never been published in English, but Martinson's second novel, 'Kap Farväl!', somewhat similar to 'Resor utan mål', was translated as 'Cape Farewell'. Director Ingmar Bergman was indeed an admirer of his countryman Martinson and, in 1964, he staged the premiere of Martinson's play 'Tre knivar från Wei' ('Three Knives From Wei'), although, unfortunately, he considered the production an unmitigated disaster.

Goofs
When the camera pans from Gösta to Skåningen in the whistling scene, an object which is probably a microphone can be seen briefly in the upper right frame.

Quotes
Gertrud's Father: She never gave me any joy. Perhaps it's turned out for the best.

Connections
Features Stackars lilla Sven (1947)

Soundtracks
La paloma
("A Dove")
Composed by Sebastian Iradier (1859)
Swedish text by Ernst Wallmark
Performed by Bengt Eklund

User reviews19

Review

Featured review

8/10

Anchored in the Past

The sailor Gösta Andersson (Bengt Eklund) quits sailing in Gothenburg and while walking in the harbor, he rescues the worker Berit Irene Holms (Nine-Christine Jönsson) that has just jumped into the sea attempting to commit suicide. Then he meets his friends and finds a job of dockworker with them. A couple of days later, Gösta and Berit meet each other by chance in a ball and they have sex at her house. Gösta dates the needy Berit that falls in love with him and decides to tell her past in a reformatory school and her former relationships to him. But the twenty-nine year old man is not ready to forget the past of Berit and forgive her.

"Hamnstad" is the fifth Bergman's film with a bitter and bleak love story of a needy and lonely girl raised in a dysfunctional family with a domineering mother that is sent to a reformatory school, and her boyfriend that likes her, but can not forgive her past. This is the typical anti-Hollywood love story, with themes that seems to be ahead of time (for a 1948 film), such as abortion and one night stand between the couple that has just met each other. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Porto" ("Seaport")