Thursday, July 23, 2009

Sweet Land


I just finished watching Sweet Land, an independent film written and directed by Ali Selim, and released in 2005. A simple, straightforward story told mainly in flashbacks, it concerns Inge, a German mail order bride in the 1920s, who arrives in a small Minnesota farming community to marry Olaf, a Norwegian man she's never met.

With anti-German sentiment following World War I still fresh, the community initially rejects Inge and her marriage to Olaf is delayed. Waiting for her official papers to arrive, Inge and Olaf slowly get to know each other through shared labor and tiny glimpses of poetry, music, affection for animals, and concern for neighbors.

It's not a flashy story and much of the dialogue is in German without subtitles, but the film quietly absorbs your attention and draws you into the growing relationship between Inge and Olaf. It's gorgeous to look at, too. Minnesota never looked so luscious.

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