This film, a drama that takes on the constant conflict between the traditions of the indigenous Sami people of the Nordic countries and modern society, had been praised at several international film festivals before opening theatrically in its primary home country, Sweden. However, the distributors never believed in the commercial power of Sami Blood and only booked it for six theaters.
The rave reviews and the simple fact that every showing was packed eventually convinced them to expand. It is now a major hit in Sweden. Obviously there is a great need to talk about the nation’s past and how the Sami were treated.
Refusing to speak the local language
An old woman, Christina (Maj Doris Rimpi), is reluctantly traveling to northern Sweden for a funeral. She’s accompanied by her son (Olle Sarri) and granddaughter who are both interested in her Sami past and the traditions of her people. At the funeral, Christina refuses to speak the local language and even pretends not to understand it. After checking into a hotel, Christina starts thinking back to when she was a teenager in the 1930s. At that time, she was living in a Sami village in Lapland. All the students at school were required to learn proper Swedish and Christina, whose name in those days was Elle Marja, excelled. She started fantasizing about leaving her family and way of life, even her beloved younger sister Njenna (Mia Erika Sparrok)…
Expanding the story
Based on a short that first-time feature film director Amanda Kernell made in 2015, this film expands the story and makes it not just about an old woman’s return to Lapland. Kernell is of Sami descent herself and knows exactly where Christina/Elle Marja is coming from, even if she hasn’t struggled with the same kind of internal conflict. Kernell knows plenty of Sami though who have turned their backs on the culture and speak of their own people with disdain.
The reasons are complex, but Kernell makes the audience understand her lead character fully, and sympathize with her quest to belong in a society that seems more relevant to her. Sparrok, herself a proud Sami, has little in common with Elle Marja, but is completely believable as she boldly explores a new life in Uppsala. Together with cinematographer Sophia Olsson, Kernell creates some of the film’s most beautiful moments as symbols of love between Elle Marja and Njenna, who’s played by Sparrok’s real-life sister. When we return to the modern-day setting, the story is ripe for some kind of reconciliation between Christina and her family, and those stark scenes do not disappoint. Kernell handles a well-known dilemma among the Sami in moving and insightful ways.
But the film also has a historical edge. The Sami are frequently ill-treated in the film, even when the purpose is said to be benign. The most awkward and nauseating scene comes when scientists from Uppsala are in Lapland for a visit. At first, Elle Marja is eager to impress these fine Swedes, but then she and her fellow classmates are cruelly taken advantage of as subjects for eugenics research, their ”subhuman” features documented. An infuriating scene to modern audiences, but a historical fact not long ago, made even worse by the impact this research had on the Nazi movement in Germany.
Above all, though, Sami Blood is not a lecture to be tolerated but a personal, engaging and youthful experience to be enjoyed, made by a fledgling filmmaker who’s ready to explore that lucrative field between popular but harebrained comedies and overly pretentious art-house fare that tend to divide Swedish cinema.
Sami Blood 2017-Sweden-Denmark-Norway. 110 min. Color. Produced by Lars G. Lindström. Written and directed by Amanda Kernell. Cinematography: Sophia Olsson. Cast: Lene Cecilia Sparrok (Young Elle Marja), Mia Erika Sparrok (Njenna), Maj Doris Rimpi (Christina/Elle Marja), Olle Sarri, Hanna Alström, Julius Fleischanderl… Malin Crépin, Marika Lindström.
Trivia: Original title: Sameblod.
Last word: “When I started writing this I did a lot of interviews with older people and then decided to do this as a feature and do a short as a pilot with some development and production funding. Doing the short was a way of trying out some collaborations and how to use some traditional songs in the score, and a lot of things that I wanted to try out. One of these is the cast. The film is in Southern Sami language, which is spoken by only about 500 people. So I thought: I want two sisters and I want them to be really good and I want them to speak South Sami. It’s always a struggle for a director to convey something emotionally truthful, in this case having sibling actors who are real Samis was key.” (Kernell, Variety)
