THE NEW LAND (SWEDISH FILM, 1972 - Jim Colyer

Karl Oskar leads his disgruntled wife and his family to the spot he has chosen. Kristina is impressed. They get to it. Karl Oskar fishes and clears the land. Robert catches a rabbit. Kristina makes bread and cooks over an open fire. She gives food to some Indian women. The men begin building their cabins. Kristina is elated when they are given a cow but at the housewarming, we see in her face that she misses Sweden. Kristina and Ulrika are best friends now, and Ulrika plays midwife when Kristina's baby is born. They drink a toast. The schizophrenic Robert imagines he shoots and kills an Indian. Karl Oskar has little respect for his brother. The snow scenes portray the Minnesota winter. In the spring, Robert and Arvid set off to dig for gold in California. Ullmann looks sexy at their parting, her long golden hair down on her shoulders. Ulrika tells Kristina she is marrying a Baptist minister. She models a fashionable hat, and Kristina tries it on. Karl Oskar struggles to pay the postage on his mail from Sweden. Kristina is hit with an attack of homesickness. Karl Oskar consoles her in bed. The sound of an ax is heard. There are new neighbors fresh from Sweden, religious fanatics unfortunately. Karl Oskar shows his newly planted Astrakan apple tree. Ulrika brings her husband to meet Kristina. Ulrika with her dimples, cropped curly hair and upbeat personality is the perfect foil for the serious-minded Kristina. Kristina defends her when the new neighbors censure her for becoming a Baptist. Karl Oskar gets the ox he desires. His harvest will double. He plows. From his corn field, he espies the returning Robert. Four dream sequences follow in which we learn what befell Robert and Arvid. Robert is loonier than ever. Kristina suspects Arvid's fate when she finds his watch in Robert's bed. It is not long before Karl Oskar finds himself making his brother's grave marker. Note that Robert dies beside a running stream. The Civil War makes self-defense versus Christianity the issue. Karl Oskar flunks the physical, and Kristina is relieved. It is the Indians whose presence has been felt all through the film that give the Swedes trouble. Karl Oskar and a trapper debate whether the land was stolen or made more useful by farming. Kristina's health demands that there be no more pregnancies. She feels useless. She refuses to sleep alone. Again, to trust God or to trust the doctor. The Sioux attack Sven Danjelsson's settlement. It is terrible. The only good part is Sven's beautiful wife. She plucks a chicken and laughs with her kids as the feathers fly. The settlers mobilize. Karl Oskar stays with Kristina who has miscarried. He brings her an apple. The grown tree next to their cabin measures their years in America. Kristina dies. Memories and images of old age pursue Karl Oskar to his grave. The family picture at the end shows his many descendents.