Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966) is a Swedish avant-garde film that is widely known for its complexity. In order to understand the film’s layered themes, it is necessary to analyse it in different contexts. The film opens with a prologue, a sequence that has become one of the most recognisable parts of the film. At its very beginning viewers get a clear message that they are watching “a film about a film”, and as the sequence progresses, it is possible to identify key motifs from Bergman’s previous work. When the prologue is put in the context of Bergman’s life and work, those motifs start summarising his previous films and tell the story of film as a form of art. Avant-garde films were flourishing in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s and one of its biggest movements was the French New Wave cinema. Putting Bergman’s Persona side-by-side with New Wave’s directors like Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Resnais it is easy to notice similarities, but also the key differences between them. While they all use similar techniques, for example associative montage, Bergman is the one that insists on the narrative structure the most. He uses it to lure viewers into the movie, before completely deconstructing it in its other half. Countless layers of meaning that emerge in every one of these contexts are the main reason why Persona captivates so many critics, writers and the general public even today.