Elle Marja, 14, is a reindeer-breeding Sami girl. Exposed to the racism of the 1930s and phrenological examinations at her boarding school, she starts dreaming of another life. To achieve this other life she has to become someone else and break all ties with her family and culture.
Sámi Blood, Esta es mi sangre, Samiu kraujas, Krew Saamów, Sange de lapon, SAMI, Sámská krev, I Katagogi ton Sami, Sami, une jeunesse en Laponie, Das Mädchen aus dem Norden, Saamelaisveri, Sangue Lapão, Számi vér, Η Καταγωγή των Σάμι, Саамская кровь, Кръвта на саамите, 사미 블러드, 萨米之血, サーミの血, Sámska krv, 薩米的印記
Italy Giornate degli Autori 
Canada Toronto International Film Festival 
JapanG Tokyo International Film Festival 
USA Sundance Film Festival 
Sweden11 Göteborg Film Festival USA Sweden11 
Denmark15 
Germany6 
Norway9 
Netherlands12 
FinlandK-12 Italy 
Greece 
France 
Austria6 Sweden11 Netherlands12 Austria Canada Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Italy Japan Netherlands Norway Sweden USA 
Sami Blood is a coming of age story but it feels like it has a much heavier weight than that. It’s a deeper loneliness than the normal feeling of growing into your own person. When you want to shed the very core of your identity and run away. You dream of a new life, a new look, a new you. You think it would be better this way. You turn that hatred in on yourself for not being born differently rather than on those who decided it was wrong to be you. And that leaves you lonelier than ever.
You grow older. With your back turned on the world, your family, yourself. Haunted by the world you fear, alienated by…
"Sami Blood" is a powerful coming-of-age tale about a Sámi girl who is dealing with racism, struggling with her identity and trying to find her place in this world.
The movie has slow pacing but it is not boring at all. It feels psychological. It tells a story of an old woman who refused to belong in Sami culture. By reminiscing her younger self, the woman explains the audience why she chose to leave her identity behind and why she had a desire to be a Swede rather than a Sami. Her decision was quite radical and it was a really difficult one. So, you just have to understand her point of view without judging her.
The storytelling is incredible.…
“My dad is dead. My mom has reindeer.” In many respects, 14-year-old Elle-Marja (magnetic newcomer Lene Cecilia Sparrok) is a lot like the typical kid at the heart of any coming-of-age story. Snagged between the smallness of her upbringing and the allure of the outside world, she’s hardly the first teenager who’s been forced to navigate a new identity for herself, to forge an uncertain path between where she’s from and where she’s going.
In other respects, Elle-Marja is quite unlike any other character the genre has ever seen before. Well, in one respect at least: She belongs to the Sami, a nomadic Scandinavian people who have been discriminated against for centuries, and whose fragile culture (and native land) has only become more of a target as it’s grown more vulnerable to erasure.
consider this: ive lived 20 years in sweden and ive never seen a movie with a saami main character. probably not even a side character. that's awful. especially since this is one of the best movies ive seen and there's probably a plethora of stories to be told
In short, this is by far one of the absolute best films I've seen. It won't be one of my favourite films because it's just not that kind of film. However, this is filled with so much power and emotion that one does not finish watching this without utter respect for the powers behind the making of this.
11/10 would recommend.
Watched on the national day of Sámi peoples.
I'm not sure if Finnish schools still don't teach how Sámi were violently forced to assimilate, how far these punishment measures went and how strong was the attempt to erase their history and language. Finnish state hasn't even apologized for this and Finnish don't talk about it because they think it is ancient history but no, it happened when the fathers and mothers of my generation went to school. We are always taught that Finnish are the most oppressed people in the world when in fact we have been oppressors for our own people, not to mention to indigenous peoples.
Ironically though, this film made me wonder what being a Finn is…
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” The melodies of the yoik and the katajjaq long to be heard loud, long, and free.
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So this must be playing at the multiplex there. Admirable, but interminable.
Yaksan yanmaz, vursan kanamaz mıyım ?
Film Önerim: Sami Blood (2016)
Bisküvinin arasındaki krema kadar sevdiğim canım dostlarım umarım mutlu ve huzurlu bir gün geçiriyorsunuzdur. Normalde 2 gün önce İran Sineması listesini sizlerle paylaşacaktım ama maalesef yetiştiremedim. Bir aksilik çıkmazsa yarın huzurlarınızda olacak. Gecikme için kusura bakmayın lütfen.
Bu duyuruyu da yaptığıma göre haftanın film önerisine geçebiliriz. İskandinav Sineması listemde de (profilimden ulaşabilirsiniz) yer verdiğim filmlerden biriyle, İsveç başta olmak üzere İskandinav coğrafyasında yaşayan yerli halklardan olan Samilerin (diğer adıyla Laponlar) yaşamına ayna tutan bir eserle karşınızdayım. Oldukça çarpıcı ve gerçekçi bir film olduğu muhakkak. Yerli halkların maruz kaldığı ırkçılığı ve asimilasyonu anlayabilmek için birebir olduğunu düşünüyorum.
Filmin konusuna geçiyorum. İzleyecek arkadaşlara şimdiden iyi seyirler.
1930’lu yıllarda geçen film, İsveç’in…
MSPIFF 2017 #34
What a revelation. The first feature film by Swedish/Sámi director Amanda Kernell, which tells a story so vital that one can only be humbled by it. I knew that the Sámi, the indigenous people of the Scandinavian arctic, were and are oppressed by white Scandinavians, including my own Norwegian ancestors. I did not know about so many of the horrors depicted here, particularly the shocking humiliation, degradation, and violence that Sámi children suffered in boarding schools. How many examples of art like this do we need before folks catch on that people have to have the resources and opportunity to tell their own stories? I've sure never seen a story like this in all the films I've seen by white Swedes and Norwegians. It's beautiful, heartbreaking, and I hope everyone (especially those of us of Scandinavian descent) has the chance to see it.
[english]
Christina is 78 years old and travels to the northern reaches of Sweden to attend her sister's funeral. Christina doesn't care much for the Sámi, the indigenous people of northern Fennoscandia: According to her comments, they lie, steal and stink.
But Christina is a Sami herself - raised in the 1930s under her Sami name Elle Marja. She decided at a young age to leave her family, give up her name and study in Uppsala.
How did this come about? Elle Marja, like all Sami children, has to go to a special school where Swedish is strictly spoken and the children are always made to understand that they are inferior and have little ability to learn. The school is…
this is a beyond heartbreaking story with stunning cinematography. i don’t have anything else to say because the topic is just so heavy it left me feeling empty.
