Jan Troell Movies

In a series of remarkable events inspired by a true story, Maria Heiskanen stars as Maria Larsson, a Finnish mother and housewife who devotes all of her attention, care, and consideration to the well-being of her family -- but, like many homemakers, does so at the expense of her own identity and self-awareness. Not that her dockworker husband, Sigge (Mikael Persbrandt), particularly deserves such consideration; a brutish, alcoholic lout, his evenings consist of making life hell for Maria and their daughter with tyrannical, abusive behavior. Then, as the dockworkers go on strike and the family's economic situation plummets, a ray of hope appears, in the form of a Contessa camera won in a local lottery. Unsurprisingly, Maria at first attempts to pawn it to reel in extra monies, but store owner Sebastian Pedersen convinces her otherwise; he teaches her how to use it, and she begins taking gorgeous, haunting photographs with the unaffected, instinctive perceptions of a young child. As the woman's self-discovery builds and her identity takes on form and definition, Sebastian unofficially takes her on as a protégée and quietly witnesses romantic feelings for her building inside of him. Meanwhile, Sigge's life falls to pieces when the authorities connect him with the catastrophic explosion of a British vessel. Maria's daughter, Maja (Callin Öhrvall), narrates. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Veteran Swedish director Jan Troell returned to fiction features after several years directing documentaries with this drama, based on a true story about a pioneering female aviator. Elsa Andersson (Amanda Ooms) was born near the dawn of the 20th century and raised by her father Sven (Bjorn Granath), a successful farmer, after her mother passed on at an early age. Elsa is brought up to believe it is her lot in life to marry another local farmer and raise a family, but as a teenager she becomes fascinated with airplanes, and at 21 she defies her family and enrolls in a school for pilots. While a student, Elsa meets fellow aspiring aviator Erik (Bjorn Kjellman) and they soon fall in love. But Erik dies in a plane crash not long after Elsa discovers she is pregnant with his child; Elsa is crushed, but forces herself to complete her pilot's training. After earning her licensee, Elsa develops an interest in parachuting; she also finds herself taking comfort in the arms of another woman. Jan Troell served as cameraman on Sa Vit Som En Sno, as well as directing and collaborating on the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this compelling Swedish documentary, director-editor Jan Troell traces the efforts of three Scandinavian balloonists to reach the North Pole in 1897. The 60-minute film is based on authentic diaries, photos, and letters of the disaster, including materials recovered in 1930 when the remains of the expedition were discovered preserved in ice on a remote Polar Sea island. Norwegian Knut Fraenkel and two Swedes, Nils Strindberg and August Andrie, departed in 1897 in their balloon called Ornen (The Eagle), but little was known of their fate until the items found on White Island in 1930 were taken back to Sweden. Decades later, author Olof Sundblom used the diaries as the basis for his novel The Flight of the Eagle (1967). Jan Troell, known for such award-winning films as Here's Your Life (1968), The Emigrants (1972) and Hamsun (1996), did much additional research before he filmed his Oscar-nominated adaptation of Sundblom's novel, Flight of the Eagle (1983). Starring Max von Sydow, Goran Stangertz, and Sverre Anker Ousdal, the 1983 drama won various awards and competed at the Venice Film Festival. For this memorable and moving 1998 documentary, Troell drew on his experiences making the feature, adding short clips from that film to archival materials (deteriorating still photos found in the ice). New color footage was shot at both the expedition's starting point and its frozen finale. The tragedy is heard from the expedition's participants, brought to life through diary extracts read by von Sydow, Samuel Froler, and Rolf Lassgard. Anita Ekstrom provides the voice of Strindberg's fiancee. Seen in both Swedish theaters and TV, it was also shown at the 1998 Gothenburg Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Triple murders are rare enough in Sweden that they qualify as headline-grabbing national news for prolonged periods of time. This movie is based on the story behind one such incident, which took place in 1988. A girl and a boy from Finland have traveled to Denmark, where they support themselves by various mildly nefarious means, generally small burglaries. The boy is captured for one of these crimes and does some jail time, while the girl tries to make a go of it on her own. However, when her aggressive young lover gets out of jail, she takes off with him to Sweden. There, they engage in ever-more daring criminal feats, until one day they murder a married couple and their teenaged son while they are visiting a cemetery. According to reviewers, there is a sense of inevitability in the progress of the story, which focuses on the alienation and isolation of these two congenital outsiders. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Based on the novel by Per Olaf Sundman, Ingenjör Andrées Luftfärd (Flight of the Eagle) tells the real-life story of a Swedish engineer's attempted expedition to the North Pole in a hot air balloon. Jan Troell directs this over two-hour adventure drama set in 1897. Max Von Sydow stars as Salomon August Andrée, the engineer who leads the tragic journey in a balloon called The Ornen (The Eagle). He is accompanied by explorers Nils Strindberg (Goran Stangertz) and Knut Fraenkel (Sverre Anker Ousdal). Ingenjör Andrées Luftfärd was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in the 1983 Academy Awards. Using his experiences making this film, Troell went on to make the hour-long documentary En Frusen Drom (Their Frozen Dream) in 1998 with archival information from the remains of the expedition found in 1930 on an island near the North Pole. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

In this drama, Hinder (Hakan Serner) is a middle-aged music teacher who has suddenly realized that time is passing him by. He has two unfulfilled dreams in life: to finish his major symphonic composition, and to have a genuinely successful love affair. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Director/writer Jan Troell's expansive saga deals with the Larsen family, who during the 19th century famine in Sweden emigrate to the more fertile fields of Minnesota. With painstaking detail, the director follows the Larsens as they make the perilous (and, to some of their fellow immigrants, fatal) journey by foot, steamer, train, and paddle boat. The film, which originally ran 190 minutes but was pared down to 150 by its director for American consumption, earned Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Direction, and Best Actress (Liv Ullmann). The Emigrants was followed by a sequel, Nybyggarna ("The New Land"); both films have been edited together for TV release under the title The Emigrant Saga. The subsequent American TV series The New Land (1974) starred Bonnie Bedelia in the role created in The Emigrants by Liv Ullmann, and Scott Thomas in the patriarch role originated by Max von Sydow. In 1991, Sven Nykvist directed a "prequel" to The Emigrants titled The Ox. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on Eyvind Johnson's book Romanen om Olof, Here's Your Life is an epic drama considered a masterpiece in Sweden. Filmed in widescreen with black-and-white and color film stocks, it was released in 1966 in Sweden with a three-hour running time. In 1968, it was cut down considerably for the U.S. release. Set at the turn of the 20th century, Olof Persson (Eddie Axberg) grows up in the small village of Norrland. He tries to escape his hometown and become a writer. Max Von Sydow appears as Smalands-Pelle, a family friend who offers Olof a job. Eventually the young man grows into adulthood and discovers politics, sex, and the cinema. Also starring Gudrun Brost, Bo Wahlstrom, and Gunnar Bjornstrand. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

This symbolic tale of the examination of youthful moral fiber finds a young girl an expectant single parent after a series of affairs with many men. She keep the baby but dumps the father, a kindly but immature youth bent on becoming a rock & roll crooner. When she takes up with a more serious boy, he drags her down with his own series of emotional impairments. The young mother contemplates moving away from her family who remain emotionally distant while under the same roof. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi