SCHNEELAND (SNOWLAND)
Germany, 2005, 142 minutes, Colour.
Thomas Kretschmann, Julia Jentsch, Maria Schrader, Ulrich Muhe.
Directed by Hans W. Geissendoerfer.
Schneeland (Snowland) is based on a novel by Elizabeth Rynell. It was adapted for the screen and directed by veteran German director Hans W. Geissendoerfer. Geissendoerfer made a number of significant films from the 1970s including an adaptation of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck with Jean Seberg, the Patricia Highsmith story The Glass Cell, Edith’s Diary, another Patricia Highsmith story, Boomerang Boomerang, Gudrun and Justice.
The film is epic in style. The setting is Sweden – in the winter months, a true snowland. The film works at two time levels. The contemporary scene shows a young woman, a writer who has lost her husband in an accident and sent her children off with her sister, driving into the snowy countryside with the possibility of ending her life.
Instead, she takes shelter in a house and finds records of a woman who had died there but delves into her life of sixty years earlier. This is a romantic part of the film, focused on the young woman, Ena, dominated by her cruel and abusive father. She cannot leave him, lives in isolation. However, a stranger, minding the flocks, comes into her world during the summer months and she falls in love with him. She also gets the courage to confront her father – which leads to his death. It also leads to the tragic death of the mysterious stranger.
The film makes the parallel between the two women, their isolation, their grief, their energy and longing for life. There is an optimistic tone because, even though tragedy is prevalent in her early life, Ena survives to marry and to have a family.
The film shows hope also in Elizabeth gaining a new lease of life by her learning about Ena. The film is very much the translation of a long novel to the screen, classical in its style.
1. The scale of the film? Entertainment? Impact? Serious themes of redemption?
2. The Swedish settings, the snowland itself, the snow, the storms, the seasons, the summer, the bleak beauty, the treacherous nature of the terrain?
3. The 21st century and the cars, computers etc? The 1930s, the town, the farm, the horses out in the fields, the tent? The musical score?
4. The presence of death: Ingmar, the mother, the father, Aron, Ina? But for others, death to life?
5. The themes of sin and redemption, the killings, the prayer, the hope for new life after forgiveness? Atonement?
6. The interconnection of Ina and Aron’s story, then the connection with Elizabeth?
7. Elizabeth as mother, wife? Her breakdown? Her writing, wanting her husband to comment? Their love for each other, the aunt’s comment about his being able to help her? The children? The news of her husband’s death, the children going, her depression? Driving into the bleak open spaces, getting out of the car, her experiences in the snow, the tree with her initial and her husband’s? The struggle, finding the house? Discovering Ina’s body? Settling into the house, looking around, discovering memories of Ina, reading the letters and the diary? Wanting to bury her, preparing the cross? Her writing Ina’s story? Her experiencing the cold, the howling, the isolation? Yet Ina transforming her?
8. Ina’s story, her life with her mother and father, the death of her brothers and sisters? The hard work? Her father and the flogging? The scene of his sexual abuse? The mother helpless in bed, capitulating to the father? The effect on Ina? Her daily routines, the hard work? Helping her mother, washing her mother, her mother’s death? Her preparing her body for burial? Her twentieth birthday, her resolution? To stand against her father, making him fear? His brutality, chasing her, calling her Satan, his fall? Her caring for him, the detailed aspects of cleaning for him? Cooking? As a strong woman in herself, her going to town, the shop, meeting the baby-sitter and the memories of the past, the mention of killing? Her seeing Aron, the quiet visits, leaving him food? Their talk, their love, the winter passing, his return, their sexual liaison, his wanting to marry her, her burning her clothes, going with him? The confrontation with her father, killing him – and the blade without any blood on it? Her grief at Aron’s death, Salomon and his wife visiting her?
9. Ina having a life after the death of Aron, a long life, family and joy?
10. The portrait of the father, his disappointment in his wife, the death of his children, his antagonism towards Ina, the strap and beating her? The sexual abuse and his dominance? The mother and her helplessness, not being able to intervene, yet telling her daughter to live outside herself during these times of suffering? His wife’s death and his reaction? His continued work, taunting Ina, his fall and injury, his lying in his filth, her cleaning him? Yet his hostility? Trying to walk again? His antagonism, knowing that she was going away? His gradually getting up? Aron’s visit? The final confrontation, his death?
11. Aron, his arrival in the snow, with his dog? The later telling of the story to Ina, his mother, his killing his stepfather? His going away, wanting to atone, the crucifix and his prayer? His being welcomed by the family, the toys for the children (and their later being seen by Elizabeth)? Looking after the horses, his life out in the wild, his seeing Ina, relating to her, coming back after the winter, the sexual relationship, the marriage proposal? His plan for the trip, the dog returning, his dying in the ice?
12. Salomon, the welcome to Aron, giving him the work, his visits and talk, the dancing by the fire after the drinking? The wife, caring for Aron, reading the Genesis scripture and the image of Adam and Eve naked, at the end, her not wanting him to travel, her grief? Salomon and his wife visiting Ina to tell her the news?
13. The people in the town, the shop, the old baby-sitter? Highlighting the isolation of Ina and Aron?
14. Themes of life, rugged life, hard work, living with nature, the life cycle? Yet the spiritual dimensions and exploration of themes?
