Torment = Hets

The storyline of this film, although simple and straightforward, reveals a beautifully observed and incise psychological drama, written by Ingmar Bergman when he was 26 years old. It is the tale of sadistic teacher in a cheerless and strict school who takes delight in exercising his reign of terror over his Latin classes. One evening as final examination time approaches, one of his students, Jan-Erik, goes to the aid of Bertha, the newsagents assistant who is drunk in the street. They become lovers, but Jan-Erik is aware of the presence of another man in her life who frightens her. He finds Bertha dead in her room and on finding the teacher in her hallway discovers he is the other man. The teacher is arrested, but is released when the cause of her death is revealed as heart failure coupled with malnutrition. Following a confrontation with the teacher in the headmasters study, Jan-Erik is expelled from school, but when the headmaster becomes aware of the teachers tyrannical methods, the boy is reinstated and the teacher punished for his crimes.