Ellos eatnu - La elva leve

This movie is as painful as it is beautiful, in equal measures. However, knowing some of the context of the Alta-struggle and its importance in defining new terms for the larger conflict between sami and the norwegian state (it stirred an awakening in sami pride and will to resist), brings a welcome light into the sad atmosphere that the movie conveys.

It is beautiful also in character portrayal, in the subtlety of some of the story being conveyed through details. An important such is the run down shed that one reviewer is confused about. It is the fishing shed where she talks to her father in the beginning, minutes before he hangs himself. He is never shown, we just get to hear his voice and then he dies, his death never mentioned explicitly, but through the silence that he leaves behond. A very fine move by the movie makers to portray him as one in a people made silent and invisible by racist policies. One of so many male sami suicides. Yet his absence fills the rest of the movie, reflecting in all of his daughters actions. From her shame, to her rediscovered identity and pride.

It is also visiually beutiful, with the era being sooo spot on, in clothing, gadgets, furniture and so on. A feast for an eye who loves the 70s style!

For anyone who wonders; they lost the struggle against the hydroplant. It was finished in 1987.