In 1914, 14-year-old Olof (Eddie Axberg) leaves his home in northern Sweden to find a job and faces all the tumult of growing up fast. After a few shorts, director Jan Troell made his feature debut adapting a series of novels by a Nobel Prize-winning author. Easily seen as a predecessor to Troell’s The Emigrants (1971), it’s the same kind of naturalistic working-class portrait. Long and occasionally monotonous, it offers a tough look at an era before unions helped improve these people’s lives, subjecting young Olof to experiences and memorable characters at every new place… but there’s also romance for him. We identify easily with Axberg in the lead; he’s supported by a very strong cast.
1966-Sweden. 169 min. B/W-Color. Produced by Bengt Forslund. Directed and photographed by Jan Troell. Screenplay: Jan Troell, Bengt Forslund. Novels: Eyvind Johnson. Cast: Eddie Axberg (Olof Persson), Gudrun Brost (The Stepmother), Ulla Akselson (The Mother), Bo Wahlström, Rick Axberg, Holger Löwenadler… Allan Edwall, Max von Sydow, Ulf Palme, Gunnar Björnstrand, Åke Fridell, Ulla Sjöblom, Per Oscarsson.
Trivia: Original title: Här har du ditt liv. Alternative version runs 110 min.
Last word: “At the time, Max von Sydow was working in Hollywood. He was finishing ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’, playing Jesus, and he had a contract to do a Western [‘The Reward’] directed by a French director [Serge Bourguignon]. We had a contract with Max to do our film. There was a date when we were supposed to start, and if they went over time they would have to pay us. The Hollywood film did pay us a fine – and that amount of money was more than was needed to produce our film.” (Troell, Film Comment)
