Jan Troell

The Emigrants

The Emigrants

This monumental mid-nineteenth-century epic from Jan Troell charts, over the course of two films, a Swedish farming family’s voyage to America and their efforts to put down roots in this beautiful but forbidding new world. Movie legends Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann give remarkably authentic performances as Karl Oskar and Kristina, a couple who meet with one physical and emotional trial after another on their arduous journey. The precise, minute detail with which Troell depicts the couple’s story—which is also that of countless other people who sought better lives across the Atlantic—is a wonder to behold. Engrossing at every step of the way, the duo of The Emigrants and The New Land makes for perhaps the greatest screen drama about the settling of America.

Film Info

  • Sweden
  • 1971
  • 191 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.66:1
  • Swedish
  • Spine #796

Available In

Collector's Set

The Emigrants/The New Land

The Emigrants/The New Land

Blu-ray Box Set

2 Discs

$34.96

Collector's Set

The Emigrants/The New Land

The Emigrants/The New Land

DVD Box Set

3 Discs

$27.96

The Emigrants
Cast
Max von Sydow
Karl Oskar
Liv Ullmann
Kristina
Eddie Axberg
Robert
Allan Edwall
Danjel
Monica Zetterlund
Ulrika
Pierre Lindstedt
Arvid
Hans Alfredson
Jonas Petter
Sven-Olof Bern
Nils
Aina Alfredsson
Marta
Ulla Smidje
Danjel's wife
Eva-Lena Zetterlund
Ulrika's daughter
Credits
Director
Jan Troell
Photographed and edited by
Jan Troell
Screenplay by
Jan Troell
Screenplay by
Bengt Forslund
From a novel by
Vilhelm Moberg
Produced by
Bengt Forslund
Music by
Erik Nordgren
Art director
P. A. Lundgren
Costumes by
Ulla-Britt Söderlund

Current

Liv Ullmann Reflects on Working with Jan Troell
Liv Ullmann Reflects on Working with Jan Troell
The Emigrants and The New Land, the incredible pair of films made by Swedish director Jan Troell in the early 1970s, remain among the most authentic and powerful portrayals of the mid-nineteenth-century wave of emigration from Europe to the United St…
The Emigrants/The New Land: Homelands
The Emigrants/The New Land: Homelands

Jan Troell’s narration of one Swedish couple’s arduous journey to America portrays the migratory quality of marriage—of “finding that you think of this person who is not you, or this place that is not the land of your birth, as your home.”

By Terrence Rafferty

Jan Troell, Enduring Film Pioneer
Jan Troell, Enduring Film Pioneer
Earlier this year we were proud to release Swedish director Jan Troell’s two-film epic, The Emigrants (1971) and The New Land (1972). The films, starring Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow, are based on Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg’s four-part series…
The Magic of Max von Sydow
The Magic of Max von Sydow

Max von Sydow has spent the past six decades cultivating one of cinema’s most illustrious careers, and now, at eighty-seven, the Swedish actor “may be on the verge of becoming a pop-culture icon,” writes Terrence Rafferty in the Atlantic.