Sweet Land
| Sweet Land | |
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Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Ali Selim |
| Produced by | James Bigham Alan Cumming Ali Selim |
| Written by | Ali Selim, inspired by a short story by Will Weaver |
| Starring |
Elizabeth Reaser Tim Guinee Lois Smith Alex Kingston Paul Sand John Heard Patrick Heusinger Ned Beatty Alan Cumming |
| Music by | Thomas Lieberman |
| Cinematography | David Tumblety |
| Edited by | James Stanger |
| Distributed by | Libero LLC |
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Release date
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Running time
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110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Sweet Land is a 2005 American independent period drama film written and directed by Ali Selim. It is an adaptation of the 1989 short story "A Gravestone Made of Wheat" by Will Weaver. The film stars Elizabeth Reaser, Tim Guinee, Lois Smith, Ned Beatty, John Heard, Alex Kingston and Alan Cumming.
In the aftermath of World War I, Inge Altenberg (Elizabeth Reaser), an orphan from Snåsa, Norway, arrives in America to a very cold reception. The parents of immigrant farmer Olaf Torvik (Tim Guinee) remain in Norway, where they met her. Dialogue reveals that the four of them have worked out an agreement that allowed her to emigrate to America for the purpose of marrying Olaf. The Minnesota farming village of Audubon, in which her intended husband lives, is horrified to learn that she is a German immigrant with no papers. To make matters worse, she has accidentally obtained membership papers for the American Socialist Party. Scandalized, both the town's Lutheran minister and the county clerk refuse to marry them.
When events lead them to openly cohabit with each other, they find themselves ostracized by the entire town. They are then forced to harvest their crop completely by hand and alone. This particular harvest season brings not only work, but love as well.
Director Ali Selim first read Will Weaver's short story "A Gravestone Made of Wheat" in 1989 in the Sunday magazine of the Star Tribune, a Minneapolis newspaper. After purchasing the film rights, he spent much of the 1990s working on a script in his spare time as he worked as a director of television commercials.
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