The Emigrants (film)

The Emigrants
American theatrical release poster
Utvandrarna
Directed byJan Troell
Screenplay by
Based onThe Emigrants and Unto a Good Land
by Vilhelm Moberg
Produced byBengt Forslund
Starring
CinematographyJan Troell
Edited byJan Troell
Music byErik Nordgren
Production
company
Distributed bySvensk Filmindustri
Release date
  • 8 March 1971 (1971-03-08) (Sweden)
Running time
192 minutes
CountrySweden
LanguageSwedish
Budget$1.6 million

The Emigrants (Swedish: Utvandrarna) is a 1971 Swedish drama film directed and co-written by Jan Troell, and starring Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Eddie Axberg, Allan Edwall, Monica Zetterlund, and Pierre Lindstedt. It and its 1972 sequel, The New Land (Nybyggarna), which were produced concurrently, are based on Vilhelm Moberg's The Emigrants, a series of novels about poor Swedes who emigrate from Småland, Sweden, in the mid-19th century and make their home in Minnesota. This film adapts the first two of the four novels (The Emigrants (1949) and Unto a Good Land (1952)), which depict the hardships the emigrants experience in Sweden and on their journey to America.

The Emigrants won international acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 44th Academy Awards. It was nominated for four more Oscars the following year, including for Best Picture, the same year that The New Land was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. The 1974 American television series The New Land is loosely based on both The Emigrants and its sequel.