Terje Vigen

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Movie
German title Terje Vigen
Original title Terje Vigen
Country of production Sweden
original language Swedish
Publishing year 1917
length 59 minutes
Rod
Director Victor Sjöström
script Victor Sjöström,
Gustaf Molander
production Charles Magnusson for Svenska Biografteatern
camera Julius Jaenzon
occupation

Terje Vigen is a Swedish film drama directed by Victor Sjöström from 1917 . It is based on a ballad by Henrik Ibsen .

action

The film tells the melodramatic story of the Norwegian fisherman Terje Vigen and his family. At the beginning we see an old man who looks out from his hut at the surf. His life story is now told in retrospect. The young Terje Vigen is a fisherman. The sea gives him and his comrades a good living for the family too. He lives with his wife and young daughter in a small hut by the sea. A few years pass. The war against Napoleon now also reaches the small fishing village. The men can no longer go about their work because the coast is blocked by the English. Soon hunger and need rule the village. Terje Vigen dares to break out to collect grain for the hungry in the Danish village of Skagen. On the way back he is caught and captured by the English. The Lord doesn't care about the motives. The blockade ship returns to England with Terje. He was imprisoned until the end of the war in 1814, thinking of his family with longing. He returns to the fishing village grizzled. Here he finds out that the woman and child have starved to death in the poor house. Again the years go by.

We are now back at the beginning of the film. Old Terje looks out from his hut at the surf and the stormy sea. In this storm an English yacht gets into distress. Terje goes to the ship as a pilot. As the owner of the ship, he now recognizes the Lord - who is traveling here with his wife and daughter - who arrested him at the time. He steers the ship into dangerous water. Everyone has to leave the ship on lifeboats. He identifies himself on the lifeboat. When he tries to drown the child, he comes to his senses, renounces revenge and saves her.

The film ends with a view of an old cemetery against the setting sun. Terje Vigen is buried here.

background

In addition to The Kiss of Death (1916), Terje Vigen is considered to be an early main work by Victor Sjöström and a key work for early Swedish film .

The story about guilt and forgiveness takes place almost exclusively at or at sea. And it is the sea that plays a leading role alongside the protagonists. It is not only a background, but also a reflection of the soul world of the human actors. The sea is not only represented as a poetic beauty of nature, but also as a force against which the protagonists must fight and survive.

The film was restored in 2006. He is multi-colored viragiert , has a length of 1160 meters and a playing time of 59 minutes. The subtitles do not, as usual, reproduce plot descriptions and dialogues, but only quote excerpts from Henrik Ibsen's ballad .

literature

Web links