Cinema
The White Reindeer
Valkoinen peura
Erik Blomberg · 1952
Synopsis
In the snows of Lapland, the young Pirita meets Aslak, a reindeer herder, and soon marries him. But after the wedding night, her husband is absent for long periods, and she grieves. To win his love, she goes to the shaman, who gives her a potion; the charm has a price: when night falls, she becomes a white reindeer of such rare beauty that all the men of the region want to capture her.
Context
Blomberg wrote it with his wife, Mirjami Kuosmanen, who plays Pirita, drawing on Sami tales and shamanism, and shot it north of the Arctic Circle in extreme conditions, almost without dialogue, to music by Einar Englund. Released on 25 July 1952, it was shown at Cannes in April 1953, where Jean Cocteau's jury gave it the International Prize for Legendary Film. The Finnish Film Archive restored it in 4K in 2016 from the original negative.
Who it is for
A film of sixty-eight minutes, in black and white, almost silent; one must accept that the fantastic is given without explanation, as in legends.
Prizes and reception
Awarded a prize at Cannes in 1953 and at the Golden Globes in 1957, it remains, along with The Unknown Soldier, the best known abroad of the Finnish films of the older generation.