Who am I, where do I come from? It is the most fundamental of questions but one, that for many, doesn’t have a straightforward answer. For members of Finlands’ Skolt Sámi community, it is not only a fundamental question but a painfully traumatic one.
In the first-ever Skolt Sámi dialect film Je’vida, writer and director Katja Gauriloff explores the most basic question of belonging and roots through the eyes of Lida, an elderly Finnish woman forced to confront her past as her family childhood home is sold.
For Lida, though, this isn’t a pleasant trip down memory lane. For decades Lida, and many in her family, have hidden their historic heritage, having assimilated into Finnish society post-war.
Lida wasn’t born Lida, the young Lida was known as Je’vida, eking out a simple life in the Finnish countryside, learning the skills of the land and fishing from her grandfather. As part of the Skolt Sámi community, this was a life with a real connection to the land and the people who farm it. But as modern pressures grow, so does the pressure to conform. Je’vida fails a simple education test – unwilling to curtail her own freedom of expression – but on the death of her grandfather is forced into a Finnish boarding school.
It’s a forced education that is brutal in its simple delivery. The historic Sámi language, here described in the offensive term ‘Lappish’ is forbidden, described as cold, while Finnish is the language of the future described as a warm blanket. When Je’vida, now renamed Lida for conformity, refuses to eat the new food at the school, she is force-fed until she vomits.
Gauriloff’s direction pulls no punches; there’s no sudden redemption, the lifelong trauma of such an upbringing is shown in all its dreadful detail.
Lida grows into a young woman doing her best to fit into Finnish society, her Grandmother her only link to her Sámi past. It’s a connection that Lida does her best to bury until her older self is forced to confront who she really is as she travels to her childhood home with her niece.
Gauriloff’s film is beautifully shot in black and white (cinematography Tuomo Hutri), giving space for reflection and juxtaposition of the natural beauty of the landscape against the harshness of assimilation.
Gauriloff and Holmberg’s screenplay is based on true experiences of the director’s family, and that authenticity shines throughout. What will shock many viewers is this wasn’t some isolated event. Forced assimilation was standard Finnish policy towards the Sámi people, with the policy of sending young Sámi children away from their families to boarding schools, taught to forget their language, heritage, and history, continuing until 1980.
Central to the success of this film are the performances from an incredibly talented cast. Sanna-Kaisa Palo, Heidi Juliana Gauriloff and Agafia Niemenmaa portray Je’vida/Lida at various stages of her life. These are masterclass performances on how to convey emotion, even without words. Je’vida’s script is sparse, Gauriloff is not afraid to let silence speak, but every look, intonation and movement is pitched perfectly to express the deepest of feelings.
There’s a sense of reconciliation and hope at the end, but that’s not the driving message. Je’vida is a testament to the wrongs inflicted on a community by the state, a state that has yet to acknowledge its part in the near eradication of an indigenous population. Films such as this play a vital role in educating viewers of an overlooked part of modern history that is still showing signs of impact today.
Je’vida receives its UK premiere as part of Edinburgh’s Folk Film Gathering festival on 10 May.
