Sameblod (Sami Blood)

 Sameblod 2016

• Director: Amanda Kernell
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Lene Cecilia Sparrok, Mia Erika Sparrok, Katarina Blind, Hanna Alström, Julius Fleischanderl
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Hanna Alström – Äkta människor
• Why? Highly recommended by Sami friends
• Seen: 17 August 2022     

             Elle Maja (L C Sparrok) is sent away from her Sami family in the far north of Sweden to a boarding school where her language is forbidden but where her attempts to live a Swedish life are also punished. She is met with racism and scorn, but also increasing conflicts with her family. She chooses to leave the north and go to Stockholm to try to get an education.

       It’s the universal story of ethnic minorities, often the natives of an area as in this case, who are forced to give up their identity and remain sundered and incomplete for life. But it’s also the universal story of a young woman who longs for a different life in the face of her family’s rigid opposition and traditionalism.

       Beautifully filmed and powerfully acted, it’s one of the best Scandinavian films of the decade. It is Sami actor Lene Cecilia Sparrok’s first, and so far, only film role and she is phenomenal. Many of the cast are Sami and the director herself has Sami roots.

 5* of 5