Dir. Erik Blomberg
1952, Finland, 68 min
Finnish with English subtitles
Rated 18A
Shot on location in Scandinavian Lapland, The White Reindeer tells the story of a Sámi woman named Pirita (Mirjami Kuosmanen), who doesn’t know she was born a witch. When she grows up, she marries a charming herder, but suffers feelings of emptiness when he leaves on long trips to the market. Pirita visits the village shaman who casts a spell which will make her irresistible to any man. But the magic backfires when her predestined fate as a sorceress mixes with his incantation and turns her into a white reindeer. In this therianthropic state, she soon begins killing off the men of her village. Co-written and starring noted Finnish actress Mirjami Kuosmanen, White Reindeer was born from a dream she had one night, and the script fleshed out with her husband Erik Blomberg, who also directs. A skillful sledder, Pirita is originally portrayed as her husband’s equal, but forced to conform to stereotypical roles as his wife. The film confronts these issues through folklore, and attempts a respectful portrayal of the Sámi people, their land and their labor (though this depiction is considered problematic today). As film critic Anton Bitel writes, Pirita is a “feminine spirit resistant to the encroachment of Christianity and of more patriarchal values. The taming of her – an allegory of Sámi history – is as much tragedy as triumph.” Blomberg and Kuosmanen made several films together, but it was The White Reindeer that brought international success to the couple, garnering several major awards, including the Le Grand Prix International des Films Légendaires at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953, and a Best Foreign Language Film award at the Golden Globes in 1956. (Amanda Reyes)
4K Scan of the Original Camera Negative by KAVI. Courtesy of Severin Films.
Plays with The Nightside of The Sky
Dir. Rhayne Vermette
2023, Canada, 4 min
In this experimental short film especially commissioned of celebrated Métis filmmaker Rhayne Vermette (Ste. Anne) for Severin’s All The Haunts Be Ours box set, images from White Reindeer are reanimated through contact printing and optical printing.
in the nightside of the sky
i was trying to capture something
to see in the ways she sees
but i’m just a loose shutter broken
upon an ongoing impossibility
Unquiet spirits have gathered once again! Inspired by Severin Films’ latest compendium of folk horror, the Dave Barber Cinematheque presents All The Haunts Be Ours: Folk Horror Classics from October 11 until November 24. Featuring rarely seen and brand-new classics of folk horror, this series of films explores the strange and magical world of spirits, revenge and forbidden desires.
