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Winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the
2005 Hamptons International Film Festival, Sweet Land is a
poignant and lyrical celebration of land, love, and the
American immigrant experience.
When Lars Torvik's grandmother
Inge dies in 2004, he is faced with a decision - sell the
family farm on which she lived since 1920, or cling to the
legacy of the land. Seeking advice, he turns to the memory of
Inge and the stories that she had passed on to him.
Inge arrives in Minnesota in
1920 to marry a young Norwegian farmer named Olaf but her
German heritage and lack of official immigration papers makes
her an object of suspicion in the small town, and she and Olaf
are forbidden to marry. Alone and adrift, Inge goes to live
with the family of Olaf's friend and neighbor Frandsen and his
wife Brownie, where she learns the English language, American
ways, and a hard-won independence.
Inge and Olaf slowly come to
know each other, and against the backdrop of endless farmland
and cathedral skies they fall in love, a man and woman united
by the elemental forces of nature. Still unable to marry, they
live together openly, despite the scorn of the neighbors and
the disapproval of the local minister. But when his friend
Frandsen's farm is threatened by foreclosure, Olaf takes a
stand, and the community unites around the young couple,
finally accepting Inge as one of their own.
Based on Will Weaver's short
story A Gravestone Made of Wheat and shot on location in
Southern Minnesota, Sweet Land is that rare independent
feature that uses painterly images and understated
performances to tell a universal story of love and discovery.
David Tumblety's glorious magic-hour cinematography recalls
classic American art cinema like Days of Heaven, transforming
the amber majesty of Southern Minnesota's farm country into an
elegiac metaphor for memory, family, and history.
Featuring supporting
performances by veteran performers Ned Beatty, Paul Sand, and
Lois Smith, Sweet Land is the story of immigrant America, made
by the son of first-generation immigrants themselves. |
