Ticket link coming soon. This film plays over 5 days, starting at midnight on the first day listed.
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Free for Passholders and All Access Members
This film is only available virtually.
This sensitive coming-of-age film brings audiences back in time to Northern Sweden in the 1930s and the colonial oppression of the indigenous Sami people. Expertly helmed by first-time Swedish-Sami writer-director Amanda Kernell, the film follows a young girl caught between her family and her dreams for the future — all while raising questions about whose dreams she is chasing: her own, or those she has ingested through her Swedish education. The director and talented actress have created a very real depiction of female sexuality without the usual Madonna-whore stereotypes. This is not a tortured story of an occupied people, but rather a complex tale of a strong young woman searching for her future, her dreams, her connections and her identity.
Director’s comment
Many older Samis left everything behind and became Swedish and I’ve always wondered; what happens to you if you cut all ties with your culture and history? And can you really become someone else? Sami Blood is declaration of love to those who left and stayed – told from Elle Marja’s perspective. I wanted to make a film where we see the Sami society from within, a film where we experience this dark part of Swedish colonial history in a physical way. A film with yoik and blood.
The festival program is in partnership with the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association
