Originally titled “Soria-Moria”, this film, capturing the mood of the Norwegian countryside, recalls Sucksdorff’s earlier film Wind from the West. The film, as always pleasantly photographed, explores the mountains and waterfalls round the fiord Soria-Moria, through the eyes of a small girl. The images capture an attractive atmosphere of space, air and ruggedness characteristic of the northern regions of Norway. —Melbourne International Film Festival
Arne Sucksdorff, (born February 3, 1917, Stockholm, Sweden—died May 4, 2001, Stockholm), Swedish motion-picture director important in the post-World War II revival of the Swedish cinema because of his internationally acclaimed sensitivity in photographing nature. His patiently photographed flowers, insects, birds, and animals are composed into films in which the rhythm of nature is dominant and man is only one of nature’s creatures.
Sucksdorff studied natural sciences and then turned to painting at the Reihmann Art School in Berlin, but his main interest was photography. After his first short film, Augustirapsodi (1939), won national awards, he was offered a contract by Svensk Filmindustri (1939–53), Sweden’s leading studio.
Sucksdorff’s early shorts were marked by the love of nature that had been traditionally characteristic of the finest Swedish silent films. Outstanding among them were: Trut (1944; “The Gull”), an account of a Baltic seabird… read more