How a poem on Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann helped an Indian-born filmmaker make his first feature film

Filmmaker Dheeraj Akolkar on discovering legendary Norwegian actor Liv Ullmann and his documentary on her which premiered at Cannes and will release in the US in April

UK-based filmmaker Dheeraj Akolkar in Pune (Credit: Arul Horizon)

IT WAS at the home of filmmaker, artist and activist Zul Vellani in Mumbai that Dheeraj Akolkar chanced upon legendary Norwegian actor, writer and director Liv Ullmann’s autobiography, Changing (1977). Akolkar, was transfixed by what he read. It was through her book that he also took a deeper look at Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Ullmann had a long and complicated relationship with Bergman with whom she had a daughter. She also starred in 10 of his films and directed two of his screenplays. One line from Ullmann’s book stayed with Akolkar. It was from the time Bergman lost his mother and broke down. ‘I knew I could never leave him and in a way I never have’, writes Ullmann. “She doesn’t write, “I thought” or “I felt”, she writes, ‘I knew’. That knowledge is love,” says UK-based Akolkar, 46, during his visit to Pune, where his doctor parents stay and where he grew up.

He was so inspired by that line that he wrote a poem and sent it to Ullmann in 2007. After Bergman’s death the same year, he sent a proposal to Ullmann for a film on them. He wasn’t sure she would respond but was stunned when he received a call from her in early 2008. It took nearly three years and many visits to five countries and pitching the film to 86 production companies to find producers. On December 15, 2010, he finally met Ullmann. She agreed to do his film. “It was only recently that a senior producer who was present during that meeting told me that she had selected a relatively unknown filmmaker because she felt she could simply trust me,” he says.

Akolkar, who studied architecture, always had films on his mind and moved to Mumbai where he worked with the production design teams of films such as Lagaan (2001), Devdas (2002) and Black (2005). Following his stints in Mumbai, he studied screenwriting and producing fiction at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and went on to produce and direct five shorts in England, India, and Scandinavia.

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His first full-length feature, Liv & Ingmar, a documentary that chronicled their 42-year-long relationship, released in 2012. Ullmann has spoken often about why she agreed to work with Akolkar: “Sometimes you’re standing on a bridge at 73 years old and you meet a stranger who comes from a different country and culture and sometimes you should just hold that hand and jump,” she said.

That was the beginning of a warm friendship between Ullmann and Akolkar. He was among the 20 guests she invited to the Academy Awards in 2022 when she was awarded an Oscar for lifetime achievement. “I felt so humbled, touched and cherished to be at the table where some of her closest friends sat,” says Akolkar who founded Vardo Films in the UK in 2009.

Akolkar’s next was on the actress too. Liv Ullmann: A Road Less Travelled (2023), which explores her extraordinary international career and features some of her close collaborators like Cate Blanchett, Jessica Chastain, John Lithgow, Jeremy Irons and Sam Waterston, premiered at Cannes last year and will release in the US this April.

Liv Ullmann with Dheeraj Akolkar - pl take the file name from the file pic (Credit: Rune H Trondsen)

Liv Ullmann with Dheeraj Akolkar (Credit: Rune H Trondsen)

“Yes, a lot of people knew Liv because of Ingmar but her work outside of him is huge and so incredible, quiet, and dignified that I wondered why a woman always has to be a muse or a footnote in reference to a man. As Cate Blanchett says in the film – ‘Liv is her own force – A force of nature unto herself’,” says Akolkar.

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Ullmann’s work as the first woman goodwill ambassador of UNICEF, Vice-President International of the International Rescue Committee and co-founder of Women’s Refugee Commission, also deeply moved Akolkar. “There were occasions where she was marching in Cambodia when Pol Pot’s army was firing away but she kept protesting. And very recently this 85-year-old legend would go on the stage in New York at DOC NYC (America’s largest documentary festival) and draw sharp attention to the present day wars and speak about the dehumanisation and killing of children and innocent people. I just find all this so deeply moving and courageous that today I feel I could not have made the film (A Road Less Travelled) 10 years ago. But now it was not just listening to her words but understanding her silences and the things that she does not talk about that helped us shape this documentary,” says Akolkar.

Meanwhile, Akolkar is getting ready for his next film, which is in the production stage. The Other Side of Silence, explores the lives of children born of war-rapes – the ones who are forgotten and face a life full of challenges.

Anuradha Mascarenhas

Anuradha Mascarenhas is a journalist with The Indian Express and is based in Pune. A senior editor, Anuradha writes on health, research developments in the field of science and environment and takes keen interest in covering women's issues. With a career spanning over 25 years, Anuradha has also led teams and often coordinated the edition. ... Read More