The Emigrants (film)
| The Emigrants | |
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| Utvandrarna | |
| Directed by | Jan Troell |
| Produced by | Bengt Forslund |
| Written by |
Bengt Forslund Jan Troell |
| Based on |
The Emigrants and Unto a Good Land by Vilhelm Moberg |
| Starring |
Max von Sydow Liv Ullmann Eddie Axberg Monica Zetterlund |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. (U.S.) |
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Release date
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Running time
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191 minutes |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Swedish |
| Budget | $1.6 million |
The Emigrants (Swedish: Utvandrarna) is a 1971 Swedish film directed by Jan Troell and starring Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Eddie Axberg and Allan Edwall. It tells the story of a Swedish group who emigrate from Småland, Sweden to Minnesota, United States in the 19th century. The film follows the hardship of the group in Sweden and on the trip.
The film is based on the first two novels of The Emigrants series by Vilhelm Moberg, namely The Emigrants and Unto a Good Land. It was adapted for the screen by Bengt Forslund and Troell.
The Emigrants won international acclaim, and was nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1971. It was nominated for four more Oscars the following year, including for Best Picture.
It is followed by a 1972 sequel, The New Land (Nybyggarna), with the same cast. The 1974 U.S. television series The New Land is based loosely on both The Emigrants and its sequel.
In 1844 in the Swedish province of Småland, the Nilsson family lives in Ljuder Parish a small farm in the woods at Korpamoen. The eldest son, Karl Oskar, inherits the farm from his father Nils, after meeting a young girl named Kristina Johansdotter, who becomes his bride. She moves to Korpamoen to live with him and his parents. In the following years, Karl Oskar and Kristina start a family, starting with a daughter, Anna, followed by Johan, Marta and Harald. The family struggles with poor weather and harvests and hunger. Karl Oskar's rebellious younger brother Robert first comes across the idea of emigrating to America, tired of being treated poorly as a farmhand. He first asks his friend Arvid, another farmhand at Nybacken to come along with him, who eagerly agrees to do so, but the pair's hopes are dashed when they realize they do not have the money needed for their passage. Robert confronts Karl Oskar about selling his share of the farm in order to afford the passage, only to find out that Karl Oskar himself had been considering the idea of moving his family to the United States. Despite the offerings of a better life, Kristina adamantly rejects the notion, not wanting to leave her homeland as well as being fearful of risking the lives of their four young children on the ocean.
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