Ullmann and von Sydow play Eva and Jan, former violinists, a politically uninvolved couple whose home comes under threat by civil war.

It is sometimes considered the second in a series of thematically related films, preceded by Bergman's 1968 Hour of the Wolf, and followed by the 1969 The Passion of Anna.

The couple visit the town, hear a rumor that troops will soon come, and meet with an older man who has been called to duty.

Jan and Eva are captured by the invading force and interviewed by a military journalist on camera, for a segment on the viewpoints of the "liberated" population.

They are later captured again, and as soldiers interrogate them, the troops play a film of the interview, in which Eva's words have been dubbed over with incriminating speech.

Jacobi becomes a regular, but uncomfortably constant, visitor who treats them with gifts but also has the power to send the couple to a work camp.

The boat later finds itself stuck in the middle of floating dead bodies, unable to move forward and continue.

Author Jerry Vermilye wrote that in exploring "the thread of violence intruding on ordinary lives", Hour of the Wolf (1968), Shame, and The Passion of Anna represent a trilogy.

[4] The violence, which author Tarja Laine believed represented a civil war in Sweden, is depicted as "apparently meaningless".

[7] Author Per F. Broman believed Shame fits this trend in that the characters are violinists, but remarked that music did not seem very relevant to the plot.

[7] Laine suggested memories of playing the violin represent an "if-only" theme, in which the characters imagine a better life they could have had.

[8] Cohen-Shalev wrote that, like Persona and The Passion of Anna, Shame follows an "artist as fugitive" theme touching on issues of guilt and self-hatred.

[16] The war scenes required trompe-l'œil effects, with Bergman and cinematographer Sven Nykvist burning miniature churches and making small streams look like violent rivers.

[18] After shooting completed, Fårö's environmental regulations required the Rosenberg house be burned, but Bergman had developed an attachment to its appearance and saved it by claiming there were plans to use it in another film.

[16] The film had its debut at the International Cinema Incontri in Sorrento, Italy, which Bergman could not attend due to an ear infection.

[21] In Sweden, Mauritz Edström wrote in Dagens Nyheter that the film signified Bergman dealing less with his own inner conflict to something more contemporary and more important than one person.

She praised Liv Ullmann as "superb in the demanding central role" and Gunnar Björnstrand as "beautifully restrained as an aging man clinging to the wreckage of his life".

[23] Renata Adler, writing for The New York Times, called it "Dry, beautifully photographed, almost arid in its inspiration".