The BFI ihas announced the Dual Format release of Ingmar Bergman’s 1971 The Touch, which will be the first time the film has been released on Blu-ray and DVD anywhere in the world.

Bergman’s first film made with an established Hollywood star was originally an entirely English-language release. This presentation of the film, restored by the Swedish Film Institute from the original negative, is of Bergman’s preferred Swedish-English version.

Happily married mother Karin (Bibi Andersson – Persona) surprises herself by responding in kind to a sudden profession of love from David (Elliott Gould – M*A*S*H), an archaeologist visiting Sweden, whom her doctor husband (Max von Sydow – The Seventh Seal) has befriended. But however exhilarating, love is seldom simple and deceit – and David’s volatile temperament – take their toll.

The Touch will be released on 23 April 2018 in a Dual Format Edition (Blu-ray & DVD) at the RRP of £19.99, alongside the BFI’s release of Bergman’s The Magic Flute.

Special features:

• Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
• Ingmar Bergman (1971, 53 mins): on-set documentary on the making of The Touch
• In Conversation with Liv Ullmann (2018, 72 mins): the actress interviewed on stage by Geoff Andrew at BFI Southbank
• Sheila Reid: The Touch (2018, 21 mins): the only British actress to appear in a Bergman film recalls working on The Touch in an exclusive interview for this release
• Illustrated booklet with writing by Geoff Andrew and Vic Pratt, and full film credits