Anecdotes

The movie and its prequel Les Émigrants (1971) were Oscar nominated on the same year (1972), though in different categories. This is the first and only occurrence of such an event.

Novelist Philip Roth was an admirer of the film, writing in 1974 that "It's the first movie I've seen in years and years where I actually believed in the life and death of the characters. But the rendering of the settlement of the Midwest by immigrant Swedes and their dealings with the Indians and nature, is as good as anything in American literature on the subject", and it was an influence on some of his later work.

This film was fittingly filmed on location in both Sweden and the U.S. Although set in Minnesota, however, the scenes in America were actually filmed in Wisconsin near the border with Iowa.

Roger Ebert referred to The New Land as a masterpiece in his review of Jan Troell's Instants éternels (2008).

The combined cost of the two films was kr 7 million, making them, at the time, the most expensive Swedish film yet produced.