Arquivo / 49ª mostra

The snow-covered landscape and the scenes of the main characters in flight, running the length of deep gorges, materializing the forces of nature over human life, are, without a doubt, the highlights of this film regarded by French director Louis Delluc as being "without a doubt, the most beautiful film in the world." The action takes place in Iceland, in the nineteenth century. Forced by hunger to steal a sheep to feed his family, Kári (played by Sjöström himself) flees the authorities and takes refuge on the farm of a rich widow, Halla. They eventually fall in love. He is discovered, and she decides to follow him. The couple find refuge in the very heights of the mountains and lead a life that is completely isolated from any human contact. Their trail is soon to be found, and their only choice is, with the baby, to embark on a journey fraught with risk, through regions that are ever steeper and more and more frozen.