DIRECTOR: Jan Troell
PRODUCER: Bengt Forslund
PRODUCTION CO: Svensk Filmindustri 
SCREENPLAY: Bengt Forslund, Jan Troell, based on the novel by Eyvind Johnson
PHOTOGRAPHY: Jan Troell
EDITOR: Jan Troell
MUSIC: Erik Nordgren
WITH: Eddie Axberg (Olof Persson), Allan Edwall (August), Max von Sydow (Smålands-Pelle), Gunnar Björnstrand (Lundgren), Gudrun Brost (Olof's foster mother), Ulla Akselson (Olof's mother)

​FESTIVALS: Berlin

REVIEW

“This mesmerizing debut by the great Swedish director Jan Troell is an epic bildungsroman and a multilayered representation of early twentieth-century Sweden. Based on a series of autobiographical novels by Nobel Prize winner Eyvind Johnson, Here Is Your Life follows a working-class boy’s development, from naive teenager to intellectually curious young adult, from logger to movie projectionist to politically engaged man of the people — all set against the backdrop of a slowly industrializing rural landscape. With its mix of modernist visual ingenuity and elegantly structured storytelling, this enchanting film — presented here in its original nearly three-hour cut — is a reminder that Troell is one of European cinema’s finest and most sensitive illuminators of the human condition.”

– Criterion

“Relatively unknown in this country, Here Is Your Life nevertheless marked one of the most auspicious debuts in Swedish cinema, and launched the rather remarkable career of Jan Troell. Eddie Axberg – as well as a lengthy cast of great Swedish actors like Max von Sydow, Ulf Palme and Per Oscarsson – is featured in this story of a boy's coming of age during the First World War. Fourteen-year-old Olof (played with great understatement by Axberg) is ready to forsake his foster home and discover the world beyond the sterile landscape of Norrbotten. A life as rich in travails as it is in joys soon schools this education-hungry lad. Troell's extraordinary use of black-and-white photography, accentuated with color dream sequences, creates a film that is at once realistic and lyrical. On the film's screening at the 1968 San Francisco Film Festival it was noted, ‘Troell is a master of film characterization, and his version of Eyvind Johnson's autobiographical novel has the same kind of tender, detailed attention that Satyajit Ray gave to Pather Panchali. In the five-year period of this film-journey, we are exposed to a rich, unforgettable gallery of people, almost Dickensian in their warmth and grotesqueries of behavior, and behind the various encounters, Troell sketches in a visual commentary on Swedish life and character that transcends the period.' ​ As with many debuts, Jan Troell controls the artistry of his film with an unguarded enthusiasm, imprinting his personality on every aspect of this inspired first film.”

– BAMPFA

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Canterbury   
Monday, 10 March, 7.00pm​

​Whanganui   
Monday, 31 March, 7.00pm

Auckland   
Monday, 14 April, 6.00pm 

Hamilton   
Monday, 12 May, 6.30pm

Timaru   
Tuesday, 10 June, 6.30pm

Nelson   
Wednesday, 30 July, 6.00pm
SWEDISH CINEMA >>