Exotic and Primitive Lapland—Othering in &lt;i&gt;The Earth Is a Sinful Song&lt;/i&gt; (1973)

Kaisa Hiltunen

doi:10.7557/13.5006

Abstract

This article contributes to postcolonial cultural criticism by analyzing how since the 1920s, Lapland and its residents have been portrayed as exotic Others in Finnish feature films that are set in Lapland. The roots of the othering of Lapland go back to the nationalist aspirations of the Finns. The geographical distance of the northern region has bred mental distance, because of which Lapland has remained a source of exoticism for filmmakers, who almost invariably come from the South. Lapland can be seen as Finland’s spatial and cultural Other, an “internal Other” (Jansson 2003). This article asks what kind of strategies of othering are used in Rauni Mollberg’s film The Earth Is a Sinful Song (1973), which is the extreme example of othering among films that are set in Lapland. The film is based on Timo K. Mukka’s novel of the same name and it caused a sensation to contemporary audiences because of its harsh and naturalistic way of depicting life in a poor northern village in the late 1940s. The article analyzes the cinematic techniques and style that are used to represent the characters as primitive, over-sexed and uncivilized. It also places The Earth Is a Sinful Song in a continuum of ‘Lapland films’, showing that othering has taken many forms both before and after it.

Highlights

Since the 1920s, Lapland and its residents have been exoticized and portrayed as Others in Finnish feature films (Lehtola 2000; Toiviainen 2000; Hiltunen 2014)
The Other emerges as either a Finn or a Sami living in Lapland, with the main focus being on the non-Sami part of the population
Films have contributed to the construction of a mythical Lapland by, for example, omitting place names, as happens in The Sinful Song, or by mixing local cultures, as is the case in The White Reindeer, where the filmmakers picked the most exotic elements of different Sami groups in order to produce an impressive representation of the indigenous population (Lehtola 2000: 139–140)

Summary

Introduction

Since the 1920s, Lapland and its residents have been exoticized and portrayed as Others in Finnish feature films (Lehtola 2000; Toiviainen 2000; Hiltunen 2014). By critically analyzing how differences are constructed in Lapland films the article contributes to what might be called postcolonial cultural criticism in a Finnish context (c.f. Ridanpää 2005: 27–37). Said especially in his study of ‘Orientalism’ (2003 [1978]; 1994 [1993]: xxviii), has taken various forms in the course of Finnish film history It reflects the power inequalities and tensions between the North and the South of Finland, and it is underpinned by postcolonial attitudes especially as far as the Sami, the indigenous population of Finland, are concerned (Koivunen 1999; Kuokkanen 2007; Pietikäinen/Leppänen 2007; Saarinen 2011). In this context, the Other emerges as either a Finn or a Sami living in Lapland, with the main focus being on the non-Sami part of the population.

Kaisa Hiltunen

The Mythic and Romantic Lapland of the Early Films

Poor Laplanders Under a Magnifying Glass