1. What is your screenplay about?

It’s about a 12-year-old boy named August and his relationship with his father Gustav–an abusive fundamentalist preacher in the early 20th century. It explores how this oppressive mixture of religion and patriarchy unleashes trauma upon the whole family, first via Gustav’s humiliating abuse, then subsequently through August’s violent dreams coming to life.

This is partially based on a true story. It mirrors some traumatic childhood experiences of my film hero, Ingmar Bergman–who was likewise raised by an abusive preacher father, forced to wear a red dress whenever he wet the bed, and locked in a closet for minor transgressions as a child.

This project is intended to be an ode to Bergman; the title itself, Soli Deo Gloria (translation: “Glory to God Alone”), was something Bergman wrote on all of his screenplays, in its abbreviated form: S.D.G. (which he borrowed from J.S. Bach, who…