Stephanie Chuang

SCAN 360

Amanda Doxtater

15 March, 2021

Prompt J

Both Sami Blood and Elina: As If I wasn’t There focus on the discrimation by the

Swedish government towards minority communities in Sweden, either that of the indigenous

Sami people or the Finnish speaking minority in the North. Both films feature two sisters who

are forced to attend state sponsored schools that are focused on a pro-Swedish and anti-Sami or

anti-Finnish education. In Sami Blood, Elle-Marja and Njenna are subjected to dehumanizing

eugenics examinations as they are forced to renounce their Sami culture. Elle-Marja, the elder

sibling, eventually is the one who takes drastic action and attempts to completely cut off her

Sami heritage, much to the dismay of Njenna, who begs Elle-Marja not to leave and assimilate.

However, it’s not that Njenna likes going to school and being forced to speak Swedish, but she

still retains her sense of self as a Sami, whether that be through speaking Sami or yoiking,

despite the education she’s received. In contrast to both sisters, in Elina, Elina, the older sister,

does not revoke her Finnish speaking identity nor quietly accept her education, but holds onto

her identity so hard that she revolts and rebels against the pro-Swedish education being forced

upon her. Elina’s younger sister, Irma, begs Elina to give in to their teacher’s demands and to

quietly accept the education they have. Like Njenna, Irma is not necessarily ecstatic about their

situation, but she’d much rather just grin and bear it without personally rejecting her own

identity.
 In these films, the younger sisters, Irma and Njenna, represent the same moderate and

non-confrontational ideals, whereas Elle-Marja and Elina are on opposite sides of the spectrum.

Elle-Marja wants to completely leave her Sami identity behind and act as if it never existed, and

Elina refuses to partake in an institution that does not allow her to proudly embrace who she is.

Njenna and Irma merely want to pull their sisters towards the middle, where there is less conflict.

The biggest difference between the fighting sisters and the outcomes of these forces is that while

Irma, the rest of her classmates, and their teachers are eventually able to be won over to Elina’s

side to see her perspective, neither Elle-Marja or Njenna is able to be swayed to the other sister’s

point of view during their lifetime. It’s only after Njenna passes away that Elle-Marja feels a

great regret for her actions.

Perhaps the most devastating part of these films is that the reason both Elle-Marja and

Elina are forced into making such drastic decisions, and by extension their conflicts with their

sisters, is because of the discriminatory education they’re receiving from the Swedish

government. The girls themselves are not making strictly right or wrong choices, but they are

being forced into these desperate decisions by the situation the Swedish government has put

them in. All Elle-Marja did was make a quick calculation that shedding her Sami heritage would

be her best chance of success, and all Elina did was make a decision that by defying her teacher

and losing her meal privileges were the best way she could stay true to herself. The fact remains

that these mere children should not have needed to make those choices in the first place.
Stephanie Chuang

SCAN 360

Amanda Doxtater

15 March, 2021

Prompt K

In Patrik 1,5, a gay couple, Sven and Goran, move into a Swedish suburb with the intent

on adopting a baby. In a clerical error, they accidentally get saddled with Patrik, a homophobic

15 year old with violent tendencies. Sven, Goran, and Patrik are an unconventional family by

Swedish standards; they do not match up with the nuclear families and white picket fences that

fill the rest of their neighborhood. In a nervous breakdown, Goran cries over the state of their

garden - if he cannot even keep his garden pruned, who will believe that he and Sven can raise a

child? Thus, the garden is established as an indicator of how well each household appears fits

into society. At the same time, however, there are plenty of couples who present as normal

Swedish households, but are hiding problems underneath. Due to the emphasis of appearances,

Sven and Goran undergo extra pressure in proving that they are worthy of acceptance. Then,

along comes Patrik. If Sven and Goran weren’t an unconventional family before, they certainly

are now. However, to everyone’s surprise, Patrik is a skilled gardener and is able to fix up not

only Sven and Goran’s garden, but the gardens of everyone in their neighborhood. In an ironic

twist, Patrik, who has no acceptable place in the Swedish nuclear family, is the one who is

pruning flowers and fixing gardens, the symbol for a good family, for all of the neighborhood,

thus challenging the Swedish notions of what a perfect family or “garden” should look like.

In Elina: As If I Wasn’t There, the titular character rebels against her Swedish teachers

and refuses to renounce her identity as part of a Finnish speaking minority in Northern Sweden.
Elina’s identity is often made synonymous in the film with her knowledge of how to navigate the

swamp-like conditions by her home. This knowledge is something Elina inherited from her

father, who is implied to have been headstrong and proud like Elina and whom her mother begs

her to be less like. Thus, this knowledge of the swamps is implicitly connected with the idea of

her heritage through the lineage of her father. Elina chooses to embrace her knowledge of the

swamps as a core tenet of her being and uses it to protect herself; when her Swedish teacher is

chasing her, she hides in the swamp because she knows that the teacher, who does not know how

to navigate the swamp and thus is directly opposed to what it represents, cannot touch her there.

Both Patrik and Elina have a specific association with nature in their respective movies.

However, within Swedish society, Patrik and gardens are framed as opposites while Elina and her

swamp are framed as synonymous. Through Patrik and Elina choose to align themselves with

their respective nature symbols, Patrik’s alignment challenges the idea of what a Swedish family

must look like, and Elina’s alignment, in all her stubbornness, challenges her teacher’s

perspective of her identity.

Stephanie Chuang

SCAN 360

Amanda Doxtater

16 March, 2021

Prompt T

In Everlasting Moments, Maria raises her children while dealing with her husband’s

womanizing, alcoholism, lack of a job, and violence. As his problematic behavior worsens,

Maria begins to doubt her insistence to stay in her marriage. Even her eldest daughter begs her to

leave. However, upon asking her father for advice, he essentially tells her that it would be

unchristian to leave her husband, and so Maria stays. Most importantly, her husband is let out of

jail, his reunion with Maria and his children is a happy one; the film ends with him spinning

Maria around in a field, once again happily in love. What the film implies with this ending is that

Maria’s decision to keep herself and her children in an abusive situation was “worth it after all”

and that it was her responsibility to forgive her abuser and rapist in order to maintain the correct

ideal of a family. Everlasting Moments may end happily, but the implied message by that of its

characters gives an undue burden onto Maria and Swedish wives of the time that their familial

image comes before their own safety.

Conversely, in Together, Elisabeth takes her children and leaves when she is unable to put

up with her husband’s violence. She brings them to the home of her brother, Goran, who is

coincidentally living with a “family” of his own in a commune. The people Goran are, for all

intents and purposes, a sort of dysfunctional chosen family. Though some members of the family

come and go and there are fights between the residents, the commune is still largely a positive

experience, as best represented by the soccer game the movie ends with. Even Elisabeth’s
husband and his lonely friend are invited in to play, despite no one in the commune really

knowing them. The soccer game is very much so a metaphor for the family; welcome, open to

anyone, and lots of messy fun.

Everlasting Moments and Together have very different ideas of what a family is. Both

films involve a wife and their abusive husband, and both movies end happily, though with

different familial connotations. Most notably, Together emphasizes an inclusion of choice;

Elisabeth chooses to be with her husband again at the end of the film and Goran and his family

choose to include everybody in their commune together. In Everlasting Moments, it is precisely

the lack of choice, or rather the lack of societal acceptance of her potential choice, that results in

Maria having to stay with her rapist and abusive husband, which the movie rewards as the

correct decision. “So many of us struggle with obligations toward people just because we are

related to them. This sometimes compels us to stay in relationship with people. But we do not

have to stay attached to our given (as opposed to chosen) families” (Birdsong 105). Birdsong

acknowledges the obligation Maria feels, but she also emphasizes that a choice is vital to keeping

those relationships healthy. Additionally, a choice made under duress doesn’t constitute a choice

at all, especially not in Maria’s situation. “And those commitments can be as deep as we expect

legal or biological commitments to be. It’s really up to us” (Birdsong 105). Everlasting Moments

presents a level of spousal and familial commitment that is not up to Maria, and Together

presents a level of spousal and familial commitment that is explicitly up to Elisabeth.

Furthermore, while both movie endings reward the women with happiness in their decisions,

only Together normalizes the husband’s wrongdoings and remorse as a condition of the wife’s

choice to remain in the family.

 Bibliography

How We Show up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community, by Mia Birdsong, Hachette

Go, 2020, pp. 77–105.