At the Crossroads
(KAHAN KA RAASTA)
India 2017 | 48 min | engl. subtitled
Tue, 28-May-19 01:00 PM
Sun, 02-Jun-19 03:30 PM

The Lule River flows through a part of Sweden that has been populated primarily by the Sami people for thousands of years. The 15 dams that make industrial use of the Lule possible today are owned by the state energy company Vattenfall. In order to build these dams, many Sami, who traditionally live from reindeer herding, were forcibly resettled. This is a story of loss: with the resettlement, more and more ancestral Sami customs have disappeared. What remains is their deep emotional bond with water, as shown in ÄLVEN MIN VÄN, which is a portrait of four Sami women. “Every day, the river flows through me, looking for memories,” says storybook writer Eva Stina Sandling. In wonderful images, director Hannah Ambühl captures these memories and the deep connection of the women with the Lule River. At the same time, the film documents the women’s changing lives and traditions, as well as their lasting feelings of belonging to Sami culture.