English summary

Strong Swedish debut about hidden history. Beautiful!

Enthralling and intriguing feature film in which the ambitious 14-year0old Elle-Marja seeks to establish her identity during the racist 1930s in Sweden. She is a member of the Sami: Lapland’s reindeer people and Europe’s only remaining original inhabitants.

Elle-Marja (terrific performance by Lene Cecilia Sparrok, herself a full-blood Sami) discovers that the options open to the Sami limit them to a life spent herding reindeer. She is repeatedly confronted with racism and discrimination. Higher education is not available to the Sami, but Elle-Marja refuses to accept that. To pursue her dreams she is forced to leave her culture and to break her bonds with her family.

Sami Blood brings to life an unknown side of Swedish society in the 1930s. At that time, the university of Uppsala was a centre for racial studies. Director Amanda Kernell (herself half-Sami, half-Swedish) has won many awards for her film, including the Feodora Award (for Best Debut) at the Venice Film Festival.