SAMI BLOOD - Swedish Film Review (Spoiler Free). Sami Blood (or Sameblod) is a Nordic film about the Sami people of far northern Sweden (also Norway, Finland and Russia) and the Sami customs, traditions and their integration into Swedish society. It is written and directed by Amanda Kernell and is her feature debut, and Sami Blood is an impressive debut at that.
The film features actresses Maj-Doris Rimpi, Lene Cecilia Sparrok, Mia Erika Sparrok and actor Olle Sarri.
As a Swedish language and Scandinavian film enthusiast, I have been wanting to see it for a long time and now I finally have.
Sami Blood came out a few years ago and screened at various film festivals, especially Nordic ones, but I missed at that time and since then it’s proven very difficult to get a hold of, because in the English speaking world, this film is pretty obscure, because although technically it is Swedish, it’s primarily about the indigenous inhabitants of northern Sweden; a people known as Saami or Sami. There are Northern Sami and Southern Sami people (who speak two different languages, Northern and Souther Sami) and this film concerns the Southern Sami. It’s not, as you might imagine, a hit piece about the treatment of Sami people by Swedes – although it can appear as such from just a few scenes. It’s about a single character, Elle Maja and her struggling to come to terms with the hurt that she’s suffered as a result of being Sami, whilst not being able to completely deny that she is Sami. It also paints a vivid picture of how the dominant culture in a country, in this case Sweden and specifically Uppsala, sometimes demands that a minority confirm to that culture, whilst not ever fully allowing that minority to join them.
For me, Sami Blood or Sameblod was definitely worth the wait and I am very keen to see what Swedish director Amanda Kernell and the Sami actresses Lene Cecilia Sparrok and Mia Erika Sparrok will produce in the future.

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