JERUSALEM
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
Just a century ago, an amazing religious event took place in a small village in Sweden. The power of an evangelist to enthrall and entice otherwise sane people with his vision is not anything with which we are unfamiliar, as witness among others, our own homegrown Baakers. Based on a novel by Selma Lagerlof who traveled to Jerusalem in an attempt to understand the astounding events, the filmmakers have now made it into a movie.
True enough, the villagers were ripe for someone to take them by the hand and explain what had been happening in the village and to lead them to what was promised was a better life, a godly life of love. When Big Ingmar, whose ancestors, the Ingmarssons, had governed the town for generations, was killed in an accident and daughter Karin, (Pernilla August) married to an alcoholic, had to take over the running of the Ingmarsson farm because Little Ingmar who would have inherited the farm was a mere ten years old, the village was left without a leader. Fortuitously, along came the traveling preacher, Hellgum (Sven-Bertil Taube) who had all the answers, urging them to give up their worldly goods and move to faraway Jerusalem where peace and love were in abundance and where everyone would live "happily ever after."
Some 40 adults and children left their Swedish town of Nas Parish after having sold whatever property they had and journeyed to Jerusalem. The film, however, is primarily concerned with just a half dozen or so. There is Ingmar's older sister, Karen, who sells the farm to finance the trip, to a wealthy man who wants the property so he can give it as a dowry for his daughter, Barbro (Lena Andre). The now adult Ingmar (Ulf Friberg) is in love with his childhood sweetheart, Gertrud (Maria Bonnevie), who is uncertain about whether or not she should make the trek to Jerusalem.
The decision is pretty much made for her when Ingmar tells her he is going to marry Karin because he cannot bear to lose the farm which has been in his family for so many generations. This leaves Gertrud no choice but to leave with the others.
The film then moves to Jerusalem where a Mrs Gordon (Olympia Dukakis) is the ruler of the compound where all the newcomers, as well as those already there, will live. And the story further unfolds, moving back and forth between the parish in Sweden and the Promised Land of Jerusalem. The film's problem is that it takes 2 hours and 46 minutes to tell its story and I found that much too long. There were any number of places where some heavy editing could have been done and still kept the integrity of the saga. . . but that did not happen.
Directed by Bille August
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Ben Hoffman
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