The devout widower Morten, patriarch of the family, prominent member of the community, and patron of the local parish church, has three sons.

Johannes, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit after studying Søren Kierkegaard, believes himself to be Jesus Christ and wanders the farm.

As the discussion collapses into sectarian bickering, Morten receives a call announcing that Inger has gone into a difficult labor.

After the doctor and pastor leave, Johannes angers his father by telling him that death is nearby and will take Inger, unless Morten has faith in him.

Johannes suddenly interrupts the wake, approaches Inger's coffin, and proclaims that she can be raised from the dead if the family will only have faith and ask God to do so.

Inger's daughter takes Johannes (again, inspired by the Holy Spirit)' hand and impatiently asks him to raise her mother from the dead.

Johannes praises her childlike faith and asks God to raise Inger, who begins to breathe and twitch in her coffin.

After several years of financial problems stalled his film career, Dreyer was awarded a lifelong lease to the Dagmar Bio, an art-house movie theater in Copenhagen, in 1952 .

[4] The Danish government had often given such awards to older artists, and the profits from the theater allowed Dreyer to begin production on a new film through Palladium Studios.

Kaj Munk's play I Begyndelsen var Ordet (In the Beginning was the Word) was written in 1925 and premiered in Copenhagen in 1932.

[7] Dansk Kulturfilm suggested that Dreyer finally make the film and be retroactively paid for his years of work on the script.

The Swedish film adaptation, The Word, directed by Gustaf Molander and starring Victor Sjöström, was released In 1943.

[8] Twice in the film, as Morten and Anders drive to and from their meeting with Peter the Tailor, they pass the rough cross erected at the place where the body of Kaj Munk was found.

While waiting for Federspiel to return to the production after having the child Dreyer and Bendtsen planned out the final resurrection scene.

"[18] Critic Tom Milne wrote that "the interior scenes are luminous with a sense of expansive affection arising from the rich, warmly observed detail of the relationship...

"[17] Dave Calhoun of Time Out wrote that "‘Powerful’ doesn't do justice" to the film and that it "reminds us how in the end we know little about the mysteries of life.

"[20] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called it "a gripping and eerie tragedy of the supernatural", but also thought it was not as good as Day of Wrath or The Passion of Joan Of Arc.

[28] It has been released on DVD by The Criterion Collection with spine number 126 as part of a box set with the other Dreyer films Day of Wrath and Gertrud.

[29] Ordet was entered into the 16th Venice International Film Festival and won its highest prize, the Golden Lion.

[32] At the 1955 Bodil Awards it won for Best Actor (Emil Hass Christensen), Best Actress (Birgitte Federspiel), and tied for Best Danish film with Sven Methling's Der kom en dag.