Stöld

I'm so sick of the standard formula for American films that involves nothing but violence and evil, and the worst qualities of human beings. This film has touches of that, because that is part of humanity, but I also appreciate that it was based on a true story and it is, in the end, a triumph for a woman protagonist who has dealt with a lot of adversity. I hope we can see more films like this. The characters are realistic. Hopefully the story is closely aligned with the true story. It's also eye-opening to an American like me who was not aware of this part of the Swedish population. Again, great movie.

We're in the reindeer herding region. These are the Sami, an indigenous people of Sweden, who make their living from reindeer herding. They have to cohabit with the locals, who want the region to be developed for mining. There's also a non-Sami native who enjoys killing the reindeer. But the police are not investigating. A young Sami woman tries to move the investigation forward against the police's will.

We're constantly in the cold, in the snow. The pace is slow. So is the pace of the film. But the plot, simple on the face of it, contains twists and turns (the mistreatment of women is mentioned, for example) that mean we're not in an investigative film with a false culprit to distract the viewer. The culprit is known very quickly, the plot being that the police never manage to catch him. So this is not a detective film, but a drama. With little vignettes of local life in the Sami community. The film has a realistic tone, which makes it a little slow. But it's coherent. Rather than being slow, it takes its time to develop the plot, articulated with local life.

Note that the music is far too present. It insists in a heavy-handed way to make the film seem suspenseful.

I worked for Scandinavian Design for 10 years. During that time I never knew anything about the Sami people that populate this corner of the world. We call it Lapland, but the indigenous people who inhabit it call their homeland, "Sápmi" . Parts of northern Sweden, Norway, and Finland, are inhabited by a rich culture that's hundreds of years old, that still rely on herding reindeer. "Stolen" is about the Sami living in today's world.

This movie may not have a unique plot, but it doesn't lack in cinematography, realistic characters, and authentic wardrobe. The plight of the reindeer herders depicted in this film will open your eyes to a life that's full of hard work, struggles with racist neighbors, and dealing with climate change. It also shows how well they have adapted to the modern world of cellphones, snowmobiles, and social media. I enjoyed the little details, like the beautiful Solje jewelry, and colorful costumes. This movie will immerse you in a story that covers about 20 years of a young girl's life. She becomes an outspoken activist against the people who are killing reindeer to punish the herders. Mining also threatens them, even though many herders have turned to working for the mining company, just to survive. There is a rift amongst family members and townspeople who don't want to rock the boat. "Stolen" will leave a thought provoking impression on you. Maybe make you want to travel to "Sápmi". It looks gorgeous both in winter or summer.

As a thriller this film is barely adequate BUT I still enjoyed watching it, basically for the Sami culture. I had never even heard of them before and was surprised to find out there was a group of white indigenous reindeer herders with their own language who suffered bigotry from descendants of migrants. Seems to be a global theme, huh? I even did some reading about The Sami after the show. It's a very interesting story which I will be studying more. Back to the film itself: to be fair it is well filmed, the characters are well developed and the performances are good. And beautiful landscapes. It does get a bit repetitious with certain character conflicts and snowmobile chases. But it is a directorial debut and, like I said, I kinda liked it. 7 stars.

While this movie is far from perfect it tells a thrilling story about the racism and prejudice that the Sámi face in their everyday lives. The cinematography is beautiful and the acting is stellar, especially by the protagonist. Since it is based on a book, it can perhaps be forgiven about falling into the same tropes about the Sámi being so close connected to their reindeer (it feels as if every movie makes sure to point out how important the reindeer herding is to the population even though far from every Sámi does this for a living).

The plot was decent and I can understand the frustration that the Sámi must feel since acts of violence towards them and their livestock is far from fictional. A few characters were underdeveloped and didn't add all that much to the story, which made the movie feel disjointed at times.

Overall it is worth the watch and tells an important story.