Sámi people’s struggle powerfully shown in Let the River Flow

Let the River Flow (Ellos Eatnu, La Elva Leve)
Written and directed by Ole Giæver
Starring Ella Marie Haetta Isaksen, Gard Emil, Sofia Jannok, Beaska Niillas, Marie Kvernmo
In Sámi and Norwegian with English subtitles

Review by Barry Healy

Let the River Flow is a dramatised recreation of the struggle of the indigenous Sámi people in Norway in defence of their native lands in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This fight ignited the Sámi democratic struggle for recognition within the country.

Official Norwegian policy was to destroy the Sámi culture and language.

Director Ole Giæver told Red Ant that the struggle was “Norway’s Vietnam”, the most significant political upheaval the country had seen since WWII.

In the film we see 23-year-old schoolteacher Ester (Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen) slowly get attracted into the movement to stop the construction of a dam on the Alta River. The Alta was the richest salmon-producing river and vital to Sámi identity and livelihood.

She is stimulated by the overt racism she sees against Sámi people, racism she can avoid by passing herself off as Norwegian. We see her stirrings of identity with her own people and the individual costs of the self-stigmatisation among Sámi as they try to survive.

It is Ester’s cousin Mihkkal (Gard Emil), a committed activist, who educates her about the issues and the culture. Through this Ole Giæver also educates the audience.

A peak of the Alta struggle was a hunger strike by Sámi, who erected a traditional lavvo (similar to a teepee) outside the Norwegian parliament. This was a breakthrough moment for Sámi self-determination and a highpoint of the film.

Let the River Flow is strongly radical cinema that balances the political debates and the personal costs of activism.

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^{Sámi film director, Ole Giæver spoke with Red Ant about his new film, Let the River Flow, explaining the background to the radical struggle that is depicted.}