A Man There Was
| A Man There Was | |
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| Directed by | Victor Sjöström |
| Produced by | Charles Magnusson |
| Written by | |
| Based on | Terje Vigen by Henrik Ibsen |
| Starring | Victor Sjöström |
| Cinematography | Julius Jaenzon |
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Release date
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Running time
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65 minutes |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Silent film |
| Budget | 60,000 SEK |
A Man There Was (Swedish: Terje Vigen) is a 1917 Swedish drama directed by Victor Sjöström, based on a poem of the same title by Henrik Ibsen. With a budget of SEK 60,000, it was the most expensive Swedish film made up to that point, marking a new direction in Swedish cinema with more funding to fewer films, resulting in more total quality.
This film is considered to be the start of the golden age of Swedish silent film that would end after Gösta Berlings saga in 1925, although films such as Ingeborg Holm (1913) are often assigned to this era as well.
Terje Vigen lives happily with his wife and little girl on a small island in Norway. In 1809, because of the English blockade, poor people start starving and he decides to row to Denmark to bring food to his family. On the way back, he is captured by a ruthless English captain and sent to jail in England. When he was finally freed in 1814 and can return home, he finds that his wife and daughter have died. He takes up a solitary life in his house overlooking the sea. One night he sees a British yacht in distress in a storm. He rushed to her help and discovers that the skipper is the same man that had taken him prisoner and broken his life many years before. He faces a dilemma: will he take revenge on this man, his wife, and daughter or will he save them?
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Wikipedia