The Emigrants

The film is based on Vilhelm Moberg´s two first novels about the massive migration of Swedish farm families to the United States in the middle of the 19th century. Troell´s film is a kind of symphony in three movements - the hard and unrewarding farm life in Sweden which gave urgency to the migrations, the terrifying sea voyage and then the journey by train, steamboat and finally on foot from New York to the rich and unspoiled vistas of the upper Midwest. The film describes the hardships of life in Småland in a series of brief bitter vignettes. At the centre is the family of Karl Oskar Nilsson. Some primitive sense of purpose draws these simple people together in their determination to sail to America. But the long sea voyage is only a terrifying introduction to the uprooted life of an emigrant peasant. After days and days of travel by train and boat into the heart of the continent, Karl Nilsson and other migrants join other Swedes, earlier migrants, in Minnesota. Karl Nilsson begins a search for a farm of his own. At the end, he finds it in a rich open meadow in thick forest land. (official distributor synopsis)