(Orig. title) Fjärran mot Nord - By Emmy Abrahamson

Far Away to the North is the heartrendering love-story between a Swedish priest daughter and a Sami reindeer-herder set in Lapland at the end of the 19th century.

Looking for a new start in life, the Swedish priest John Asker moves his family to a remote village in the far north of Sweden. His daughter Elisabet quickly realizes that there are two separate worlds in the village: that of the Swedes and that of the indigenous people, the Sami. With growing dismay she witnesses how the Sami are segregated and mistreated by the Swedes; in particular by her own father. In secrecy Elisabet starts meeting the Sami reindeer-herder Niillas. Though Asker has already promised her hand in marriage to one of the settlers in the village, Elisabet and Niillas fall in love. As Elisabet struggles between obeying the conventions of her society and following her love, everyone’s lives are forever changed and events hurdled into disastrous consequences.

Based on real historical events, Far Away to the North is set during one of the darkest and most shameful chapters of Swedish history. To date there has never been a film made about the fate of the Sami in Sweden and how the Swedish government has systematically and consciously disregarded and mistreated them. Even now the Swedish government refuses to sign ILO’s convention 169 which recognizes the Sami’s rights as indigenous people. As controversial now as it would have been in its day, the story of Far Away to the North raises questions, stirs emotions and provokes the prejudices that still exist to our present day.


Status; In development.