The New Land / The Emigrants - Criterion Collection

Double bill of Swedish films from writer/director Jan Troell, following the journey of a 19th-century Swedish family as they move to America in search of a new life. In 'The Emigrants' (1971) Karl-Oskar (Max von Sydow) and his wife Kristina (Liv Ullmann) live in a small village in southern Sweden with their family. As they struggle to make ends meet, with one of their children tragically starving to death, they decide they need a change and so travel to America where they plan to live better, healthier lives.

'The New Land' (1972) follows on, with Karl-Oskar and Kristina settled into their new home in Minnesota with their three children, Karl-Oskar's brother Robert (Eddie Axberg) and his friend Arvid (Pierre Lindstedt). As the family work hard, they find themselves having to contend with new challenges thrown their way including the impending Civil War, rapidly spreading diseases and Robert's urge to move to the sunnier climes of California.