The film Faithless, a cruel adultery fable directed by Liv Ullmann from a screenplay by the great Ingmar Bergman, was something of a throwback even when it came out in 2000: that sort of sensual dissection of arty middle-class mores was no longer common cinematic currency. Arthouse indulgence hadn’t died out altogether and it still hasn’t today, but, for generations of viewers in 2026 weaned on premium streaming, the lofty waft of the new Faithless TV reboot, adapted from the Bergman scripts by Sara Johnsen and directed by Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), might seem alien.
We’re smoking on planes and wearing corduroy suits in deep maroon: yes, it’s 1977 and, in Stockholm, actor Marianne (Frida Gustavsson) and her pianist husband Markus (August Wittgenstein) are visited by Markus’s oldest friend David (Gustav Lindh), a wannabe film auteur who’s returned from London bruised by his divorce. Episode two introduces a second timeline, in the present, where lauded director David (Jesper Christensen) and veteran performer Marianne (Lena Endre, who was the younger Marianne in the Ullman movie) meet again and reflect on the damage caused by their affair.
