Red-125 Utvandrarna and Nybyggarna The Swedish film Utvandrarna was shown in the U.S. with the title The Emigrants (1971). The film Nybyggarna was shown with the title The New Land (1972). Both movies were co-written and directed by Jan Troell. Troell was also the cinematographer and the editor of both. (Sounds crazy, but he did it.) The films are actually one long film, broken in half so that each could be seen separately. As can be guessed from the titles, the first film sets up the plot by showing us that, despite intelligence and hard work, many families couldn't make a living on the small plots of land in Sweden. The second film follows the family from Sweden to the United States. The situation for them in the U.S. isn't that much better when they arrive, but they have reasonable hope that they will succeed. Max von Sydow plays the husband, Karl Oskar, and Liv Ullmann plays his wife, Kristina. Both are extraordinarily talented. In addition, Von Sydow is handsome, and Ullmann is impossibly beautiful. The remainder of the cast is strong, and the acting by the children is wonderful. These movies will work better on the large screen, but we had to settle for the small screen. Both films carry very high IMDb rating of 8.0. I gave each a 10.

Sindre Kaspersen Swedish screenwriter, film editor, cinematographer and director Jan Troell's third feature film which he edited, photographed and wrote with Swedish screenwriter and producer Bengt Forslund, is an adaptation of the novels "The Emigrants" (1949) and "Unto a Good Land" (1952) by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg (1898-1973) which is the first two parts of his tetralogy, "The Emigrants suite" (1949-1959). It premiered in Sweden, was shot on locations in Denmark, Sweden and USA, is the first part of a two-part film which was succeeded by "The New Land" (1972) and produced by Bengt Forslund. It tells the story about Karl-Oskar Nilsson who lives on a farm in Ljuders socken, Småland, Sweden with his father, his mother and his brother Robert. When Karl-Oskar meets seventeen-year-old Kristina Johansdotter, he falls in love with her and later he marries her. Kristina gives birth to several children and they become a happy family, but as time goes by it gets harder and more challenging to run the farm, much due to the harvest. After reading an ad in a newspaper about free land in North-America, Karl-Oskar begins to consider emigrating from Sweden with his family. Acutely and engagingly directed by Jan Troell, this period drama, set against the backdrop of Sweden during the 1840s and 1850s, draws an extensive and gripping portrayal of a group of farmers and Christians who emigrate from their homeland, a humane portrayal of a close friendship between two young farmhands and a compassionate portrayal of an evolving relationship between a farmer and is housewife. While notable for its poignant art direction by Swedish production designer P.A. Lundgren (1911-2002), the distinct cinematography by Jan Troell and the fine costume design by Swedish costume designer Ulla-Britt Söderlund (1943-1985), this character-driven and dialog-driven historic epic where the natural surroundings plays an important and symbolic part, examines themes like family relations, interpersonal relations, friendship, poverty, courage and dignity.This Swedish production which was a big investment in Swedish cinema at the time, depicts several studies of character, has a significant atmosphere which is emphasized by the naturalistic milieu depictions and the subtle score by Swedish composer Erik Nordgren (1913-1992) and is impelled and reinforced by the empathic and involving acting performances by Swedish actors Max von Sydow, Allan Edwall (1924- 1997), Eddie Axberg and Pierre Lindstedt, Swedish actress and singer Monica Zetterlund (1937-2005) and Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a leading role at the 45th Academy Awards in 1973, marking her as the first Norwegian actress ever to gain an Academy Award nomination. A cautiously narrated and memorable historic drama which gained, among other awards, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Liv Ullmann and Best Foreign Language Film at the 30th Golden Globe Awards in 1973, the NYFCC Award for Best Actress Liv Ullmann at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards in 1973, the Jussi Award for Best Foreign Filmmaker Jan Troell at the Jussi Awards in 1972 and was nominated for five Academy Awards in 1973.

Jim Colyer The Emigrants is a Swedish film based on the novels of Swedish author Wilhelm Moberg. It is about the emigrants who sailed from Sweden in the 1850s to come to the United States. Max von Sydow is patriarch Karl Oskar. Liv Ullmann is his faithful wife, Kristina. The film shows the unbearable conditions which existed in Sweden, the agony of the ocean voyage and the promise of a better life in Minnesota. Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA turned the novels into a musical in the 1990s. The music is Swedish folk music. They are trying to get an English version to Broadway. The Emigrants and its 1972 sequel, The New Land, provide a wonderful learning experience.

Oblomov_81 When Jan Troell's "The Emigrants" was released in the U.S. in 1972, it opened to excellent reviews and received the honor of being one of the few foreign-language films to receive a Best Picture nomination. It didn't win anything, though, and seems to have been forgotten over the years. Perhaps this is because the public has since found other Swedish films to be more noteworthy, in particular the works of Bille August and the later works of Ingmar Bergman.Sad to say, because "The Emigrants" is a film that closely examines two very different cultures in an effective and insightful way. A diverse group of Swedish peasants (among them a married couple, a priest, a prostitute, and a young upstart) endure back-breaking labor in their homeland to little profit. They decide to move to the states after being influenced by the exaggerated stories spread abroad (everyone has more than enough food, everyone is filthy rich, etc.). The audience sympathizes with them not just because they endure so much in Sweden, but also because they believe the stories they hear about frontier life in America. Yes, they will obviously have to strive and struggle to survive in their new home, but they are all the more admirable because of their adherence to the American dream."The Emigrants" is harsh and often unrelenting in the straightforward way it depicts the realities encountered by the Swedish settlers. The scenes where they travel across the ocean in a small, cramped, and diseased ship are appropriately claustrophobic and terrifying. Later, the family at the center of the story threatens to break up when Liv Ullmann's character, a fragile young mother, loses track of her daughter while hurrying to board a steamboat.Although most of the characters were better developed in the sequel to this film, "The New Land," Troell's story is very moving in its sincere depiction of how outsiders came to this country to pursue their hopes and dreams.