Je'vida
2023
****
Director: Katja Gauriloff
Cast: Agafia Niemenmaa, Heidi Gauriloff, Sanna-Kaisa Palo, Seidi Haarla, Erkki Gauriloff, Matleena Fofonoff, Heini Wesslin, Sophia Kiprianoff, Jarkko Lahti
Je'vida, now Iida, joins her niece to the decrepit family farm in Northern Finland. The return to her childhood home brings back a flood of painful memories. Katja Gauriloff's moving drama sheds light on a shameful episode in Finnish history and it is the first film shot mostly in Skolt Sámi language. Most of the flashbacks take place in the 1950s, when Je'vida and other Sámi children were forcibly assimilated to the Finnish society and stripped of their language and culture. This is an important topic and clearly very personal project for Gauriloff, and it shows. The black and white cinematography looks great.
