‘My son reeks of Persona’: a week with a scent inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s most challenging film

The perfume was specially commissioned by organisers of the annual Bergman Week festival on the island on which the Swedish director was born. But what does it smell like?

On Monday morning the postman delivers a parcel from Sweden. Inside is Persona, a perfume inspired by Ingmar Bergman's most demanding, difficult, abrasive film. It gives us Bergman in a bottle; the arthouse atomised. I spray it on my wrist and then on my wife's and we stare at each other through a mist of droplets. The perfume is distinctive, but does that mean it's good?

After a long, anxious moment, my wife nods in relief. This is actually all right," she says. It's herby. It's lavender. It smells like the sea."