What do I mean by "these movies"? There's a sort of genre known as Oscar-bait. They are dramas about a multitude of subjects, which are easily approachable to the to the people voting for Oscars. Now, I'm not claiming that this movie is Oscar-bait. It sort of follows that same formula, but it is not driven by ego like true Oscar-bait. And that's what I have a soft spot for: those movies that are very personal for the people behind it, but they lack those artificial moments of pathos, which always take me out of those movies.
You know quite early where this is going. There aren't really surprises here, but that's not necessary, because it's about the characters, not the story. And sure, you don't see all the specific incidents coming or how the exactly movie gets to all the points it wants to go.
The point is that we understand the Iida character and her worldview enough to symphatize with her. The movie does fail a little in showing us how she became as jaded as she did, but you can infer that pretty well. It feels like a defense mechanism more than anything else.
Of course, there's also the history of the Skolt Sami, as well as the other Sami peoples, during the last century or so. We, as a nation, should definitely study and record everything we can about what happened to them before it's too late. The last I heard a politician speak about this, his stance was that "we are not ready yet", so he was probably protecting someone instead of being on the side of the victims of forced assimilation, which is a form of genocide our country participated in. That should not be just actively forgotten when there's still a chance to document it.
This is where the importance of art comes in. We need movies like this to remind us of these things.
