2016 ‘Sameblod’ Directed by Amanda Kernell
Elle Marja, 14, is a reindeer-breeding Sami girl. Exposed to the racism of the 1930s and phrenological examinations at her boarding school, she starts dreaming of another life. To achieve this other life she has to become someone else and break all ties with her family and culture.
Sámi Blood, Krew Saamów, Samiu kraujas, Esta es mi sangre, Sange de lapon, SAMI, Sámská krev, I Katagogi ton Sami
Sami Blood is a coming of age story but it feels like it has a much heavier weight than that. It’s a deeper loneliness than the normal feeling of growing into your own person. When you want to shed the very core of your identity and run away. You dream of a new life, a new look, a new you. You think it would be better this way. You turn that hatred in on yourself for not being born differently rather than on those who decided it was wrong to be you. And that leaves you lonelier than ever.
You grow older. With your back turned on the world, your family, yourself. Haunted by the world you fear, alienated by…
“My dad is dead. My mom has reindeer.” In many respects, 14-year-old Elle-Marja (magnetic newcomer Lene Cecilia Sparrok) is a lot like the typical kid at the heart of any coming-of-age story. Snagged between the smallness of her upbringing and the allure of the outside world, she’s hardly the first teenager who’s been forced to navigate a new identity for herself, to forge an uncertain path between where she’s from and where she’s going.
In other respects, Elle-Marja is quite unlike any other character the genre has ever seen before. Well, in one respect at least: She belongs to the Sami, a nomadic Scandinavian people who have been discriminated against for centuries, and whose fragile culture (and native land) has only become more of a target as it’s grown more vulnerable to erasure.
"Sami Blood" is a powerful coming-of-age tale about a Sámi girl who is dealing with racism, struggling with her identity and trying to find her place in this world.
The movie has slow pacing but it is not boring at all. It feels psychological. It tells a story of an old woman who refused to belong in Sami culture. By reminiscing her younger self, the woman explains the audience why she chose to leave her identity behind and why she had a desire to be a Swede rather than a Sami. Her decision was quite radical and it was a really difficult one. So, you just have to understand her point of view without judging her.
The storytelling is incredible.…
In short, this is by far one of the absolute best films I've seen. It won't be one of my favourite films because it's just not that kind of film. However, this is filled with so much power and emotion that one does not finish watching this without utter respect for the powers behind the making of this.
11/10 would recommend.
consider this: ive lived 20 years in sweden and ive never seen a movie with a saami main character. probably not even a side character. that's awful. especially since this is one of the best movies ive seen and there's probably a plethora of stories to be told
I have found that explaining Sami Blood to people who have never heard of it (i.e., everyone I've mentioned it to so far) is extremely difficult. In fact, making sure they know that I said "Sami Blood" and not "Zombie Blood" is difficult in itself. I persist, however, because the film is worth promoting.
Sami Blood is set in 1930s Sweden and focuses on a pair of sisters who belong to the indigenous Sami people. They are treated brutally by the White Swedish settlers, whose medical examiners insist that their brains are less capable and other typical racist, eugenicist ideas. They are excluded from wider society and even attend separate schools designed to…
MSPIFF 2017 #34
What a revelation. The first feature film by Swedish/Sámi director Amanda Kernell, which tells a story so vital that one can only be humbled by it. I knew that the Sámi, the indigenous people of the Scandinavian arctic, were and are oppressed by white Scandinavians, including my own Norwegian ancestors. I did not know about so many of the horrors depicted here, particularly the shocking humiliation, degradation, and violence that Sámi children suffered in boarding schools. How many examples of art like this do we need before folks catch on that people have to have the resources and opportunity to tell their own stories? I've sure never seen a story like this in all the films I've seen by white Swedes and Norwegians. It's beautiful, heartbreaking, and I hope everyone (especially those of us of Scandinavian descent) has the chance to see it.
Watched on the national day of Sámi peoples.
I'm not sure if Finnish schools still don't teach how Sámi were violently forced to assimilate, how far these punishment measures went and how strong was the attempt to erase their history and language. Finnish state hasn't even apologized for this and Finnish don't talk about it because they think it is ancient history but no, it happened when the fathers and mothers of my generation went to school. We are always taught that Finnish are the most oppressed people in the world when in fact we have been oppressors for our own people, not to mention to indigenous peoples.
Ironically though, this film made me wonder what being a Finn is…
Sami Blood, Sami-Swedish writer-director Amanda Kernell’s debut feature, opens on a black screen and the sound of a lonely, whistling wind. Then, a knocking, as the introductory credits, white on black, appear, and a man’s voice: “Mom?” More knocking. The same voice: “Christina?” The first image appears, an elderly woman, alone, in close-up profile, lighting a cigarette, looking out a window, ignoring the voice. It’s a haunted space with that blackness, the wind, the disembodied voice, and the woman, turned away, hiding from both the voice of her son and our public prying eyes. It’s a space that sets the stage for the film to follow, the story of the girl who becomes that woman, a woman who is, indeed,…
Most uncomfortable part was when she went to that swedish dude, and she actually got to stay at his house. They didnt even know eachother?? And that conversation with his parents the next morning..
A moving tale told from the perspective of a completed life full of remorse about actions taken in the face of prejudice. Sami people appear frequently enough in Russian literature that I’ve come across an ample amount of negative stereotypes. This film successfully recreates the time period of the 1930s/1940s to depict the methodical exclusion and othering of these people. The lead character is played with a great degree of suppressed emotion, such that the viewer wishes to lash out in anger on her behalf at several points, and yet we also see faults in the way she treats her family and community from the very start. It’s all a bit more complex than it seems.
MARCH AROUND THE WORLD 2021: Sweden
Mal wieder ein Drama über Rassismus und die Unterdrückung einer indigenen Volksgruppe; diesmal die skandinavischen Samen. Aber gleichzeitig ist die Geschichte über eine junge Samin auch sprödes und starkes coming-of-age.
Verlust von Tradition, Rebellion, Streben nach Höherem, Begehren, Anpassen, Scham und Vergebung. Damit muss sich die gut spielende Lene Cecilia Sparrok in Das Mädchen aus dem Norden auf ihrer manchmal schmerzhaften Identitätssuche öfter beschäftigen.
Vielleicht etwas zu genretypisch, doch mit Rückblenden und vielen symbolträchtigen Bildern, einem frischem Setting und der nordisch unterkühlt aber mich packenden Erzählweise, wird rein filmisch doch gehobener Standard serviert.
Greta Thunberg does the Joik.
