This monumental mid-nineteenth-century epic from Jan Troell charts, over the course of two films, a Swedish farming family’s voyage to America and their efforts to put down roots in this beautiful but forbidding new world. Movie legends Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann give remarkably authentic performances as Karl Oskar and Kristina, a couple who meet with one physical and emotional trial after another on their arduous journey. The precise, minute detail with which Troell depicts the couple’s story—which is also that of countless other people who sought better lives across the Atlantic—is a wonder to behold. Engrossing at every step of the way, the duo of The Emigrants and The New Land makes for perhaps the greatest screen drama about the settling of America.
The Emigrants is based on “Upon a Good Land,” the best-selling series of Swedish novels by Vilhelm Moberg. Set beginning in the 1850s.
“The Emigrants” is a special film in that it’s Swedish and yet somehow American – in the sense that it tells the story of what America meant for so many millions. – Roger Ebert
One struggles to recall a more immersive dramatization of this particular historical experience. Jan Troell’s The Emigrants and The New Land chart with impressionistic intimacy the turbulent path of a Swedish family from their native land to Minnesota. – Slant Magazine
In Swedish with English subtitles.
Starring Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Eddie Axberg.
Rated PG
Note: Both films were Oscar nominated on the same year (1972), though in different categories. This is the first and only occurrence of such event.