ithankyou: See Jerusalem and die… Till österland (1926), Selma Lageröf Part III

“This is the Jerusalem of soul-hunting, this is the Jerusalem of evil-speaking, this is the Jerusalem of lies, of slander, of jeers. Here one persecutes untiringly; here one murders without weapons. It is this Jerusalem which kills men.”

Till österland (To the Eastland) is the last of the four films adapted from Selma Lageröf’s two-part epic Jerusalem II: In the Holy Land (Jerusalem II: I det heliga landet) which was published in 1901. A Swedish-Soviet-German co-production it featured extensive location filming in Jaffa and Jerusalem as well as Borlänge, Dalarna in Sweden in order to replicate the sweep of the author’s themes of love, land, faith and fortune. Production shots also show cast and crew on a detour to Egypt to see the pyramid of Giza and the Sphynx.

UPDATE May 2024: Only a part of the film survives in the Swedish Film Institute archive however they have now been able to construct a restoration that will enable us to see the completion of the Ingmar family story and the resolution of Ingmar Ingmarsson’s complicated love triangle (which becomes a quadrangle or even a pentangle if you add Our Lord…). The restored film, featuring a mix of stills and text to plug the narrative gaps, will be screened at Il Cinema Ritrovato 2024 and I can't wait!

This post was originally written when all we had was Selma’s book, a stack of production shots and the previous film, Ingmar’s Inheritance (1925) along with familiarity with the key performers; Lars Hanson, Mona Mårtenson, Ivan Hedqvist and Jenny Hasselqvist. The script is still extant but it’s in Swedish so I’m making assumptions about how much of the story script writer and director Gustav Molander included.

Some of the locals...

The first half of the novel focuses on the difficulties faced by the Dalecarlians community who left for Jerusalem at the end of the previous film. There is little mention of Ingmar until almost half way through as he journeys out to make good on what he sees as his obligations to the woman he pledged his heart too only to betray her trust when he mad to marry to buy back the family farm.

Lageröf had made the same arduous journey to the Holy Land in 1899, inspired by the migration of 37 Swedes from the village of Nås in 1896. According to Swedish writer, Ingrid Carlberg, their photographs can still be found in the American Colony Hotel along with Selma’s. Reviewing the book in The Independent Carlberg tells of the impact Lageröf’s “effortless storytelling” and prose had on her and, of course, being a Brit, I’ve had to rely on Velma Swanston Howard’s translation which has had mixed reviews in terms of its maintenance of authorial respect. That said, the story is still compelling and at times you’re wrong-footed by the shifts in tone, the magical reality and the visions that may or may not be real.

At one point, Gertrude – played by Mona Mårtenson – has a vision of a man who looks exactly like the Christ she saw in the woods which made her a convert. This time though, the “nameless messiah” turns out to be a Muslim and one who operates at a less cerebral level than the man of God she expected. It’s a reality check and yet Selma moves in mysterious ways… Ingmar, Lars Hanson again, travels to Jaffa on foot only to break down with an injured foot, imperceptibly the narrative shifts into a dream and he completes his mission; it’s only after being woken by the person he was seeking does he realise that his dream was real to her.

Mona Mårtenson and Harald Schwenzen as the Swedes arrive

“It is you who have killed her. Your slandering tongues sent her to her death!”

Lageröf’s precise agenda is complex and the first part of the book is merciless with characters being bought to life only to be extinguished by the heat, the light, shame and starvation. One man dies in disappointment after the golden vision of Jerusalem he saw on first arrival is not matched by the reality of dirty streets, beggars and lepers. Gunhild, one of Hellgum’s early converts, suffers after the group are demonised by other missionaries, who view them as immoral for their refusal to sanction marriage. The shame reaches back home where her mother dies in grief leading to the young woman’s decent into misery, she is soon gone herself, faith ill-rewarded. Hellgum himself is barely mentioned now that they are where he asked them to go and Conrad Veidt was also absent from the film.

The leader of the mission is an American woman, Mrs Gordon, who, in the book, was inspired to form the new faith by the sinking of L’Univers, not Hellgum as in the film. She is based on Anna Spafford, the wife of a well-to-do lawyer and Presbyterian church elder, who was travelling to Europe on the SS Ville du Havre with her daughters when it collided with another ship and sank, with Anna being one of the few survivors. The Spafford’s established a Christian utopian movement eventually travelling to establish a commune in Jerusalem where they hoped good works would hasten the Second Coming of Jesus. They were treated with suspicion and they did indeed encourage the exodus from Nås. Truth is stranger than fiction, even Selma’s.

Gertrude is taken ill at the Wailing Wall

Horatio Spafford died from malaria and so too do the Dalecarlians start to succumb, even Gertrude who is nursed back to health by Hök Gabriel Mattsson, Ingmar’s cousin played in the film by Harald Schwenzen, who has held a candle for the schoolmaster’s daughter even since he attended her father’s school. He doesn’t think he has a chance, assuming Gertrude still loves Ingmar, and yet she has moved on from her old passion ever since her vision of Christ and their arrival in the Holy Land. The two form a close bond but Gertrude doesn’t want to be unfaithful to her Lord and Hök doesn’t want to get in his cousin’s way.

Talking of whom, it’s now page 175 and Ingmar is finally arriving now the scene has firmly been set. A lot of water has passed under the bridge back home and Ingmar has grown to love his wife Barbro (Jenny Hasselqvist) whilst at the same time being bound to Gertrude by his promise. Barbro has revealed herself to be a forgiving and principled individual who not only is beloved by the peasants of Ingmar’s Farm but also provides financial support for the family of the man who jilted her. She too feels a responsibility to Gertrude and wants to divorce Ingmar so that he can be with her.

That unbearable moral conundrum at the end of the first volume and Ingmar’s Inheritance has twisted itself even further out of joint and there’s a tremendous tension in the final furlongs of the narrative as each character slowly understands the reality of their feelings for each other. Selma is not going to let any of this go though and there’s an excess of human complication which she makes light work of with a distinctive style that pushes through the fug of Americanisms used by Mrs Howard.

Ingmar arrives (Lars Hanson)

The beauty of reading the book after watching Ingmar’s Inheritance is that you can imagine how the actors would play these roles, Lars Hanson powerfully stubborn and Mona Mårtenson so fresh faced and open against the onslaught of ill-fortune. It’s Jenny Hasselqvist I’d most like to see though, especially in the dynamic final sequences where, having secretly had Ingmar’s baby, and fearing it to be possessed of her family curse of blindness and mental defects, Barbro considers following the same route as Big Ingmar’s wife, Brita, who killed her baby and then herself. That’s a powerful bookend to complete the family’s story arc and Hasselqvist would have dealt with the impossible mix of self-loathing and emerging motherly love with her usual grace.

The stills give some idea of how the film would have looked and again we would have had the excellent cinematography of Julius Jaenzon - as well as Carl-Axel Söderström – given a totally different landscape to capture. For the man who shot so well against the Sun in The Sons of Ingmar (1919), it would be fascinating to see.

Ivan Hedqvist and Jenny Hasselqvist

The stills also show where Molander’s story was focused and that is the on aftermath of Ingmar’s arrival. Ingmar gives the Dalecarlians an immediate lift – he is a representation of their old certainties and has qualities of leadership too. That said, his sister Karin (Märta Halldén) is appalled to hear of his impending divorce and that it was requested by Barbro. She imagines what their father would say and Ingmar responds with a weary, “The dead are better off than the living…” a sentiment straight out of the pages of Lagerlöf’s first novel, Gosta Berling.

Ingmar writes a letter to the Parson back home, one he wants forwarded to his wife, which neatly sets out how they have become estranged in spite of themselves; it’s what we expected after the last film but for different reasons and with feelings which add a whole new level to their situation. As with Big Ingmar and Brita their route to love is all the stronger for being unexpected and founded on an almost unearthly force. Both are driven be a sense of duty and that must outweigh their feelings for, as Barbro’s father dies, she feels relieved of her responsibility to remain married to a man she believes still loves another.

Out in Jerusalem, Ingmar is aiming to bring back Gertrude to complete on his promise but when he senses her change of affection, he can see a plan that might just work. He finds out about a plan to undermine the colony and makes his journey to Jaffa to warn Mrs Gordon, after this supernatural episode he wins favour enough to be allowed to manage an unused mill – the Colony won’t work for pay and the owner won’t have them work for no money but Ingmar has no qualms.

Mona Mårtenson and Lars Hanson

“Every miller knows that there is a good deal of magic about a mill…”

Ingmar’s efforts bring a healthier balance to the Colony, perhaps this is the kind of endeavour these farming folk have been missing; the hard work draws them in and reinforces their purpose. By autumn “the whole colony was alive with the spirit of enterprise and activity…”

Ingmar is injured trying to stop the desecration of a Jewish grave and develops and eye infection – he must return to Sweden to save his sight and after Gertrude agrees to accompany him he manages to persuade Hök by letting him and Gertrude, read his confessional letter… the section in which he spies on their realisation of his true feelings is precious.

Hasselqvist and Hanson

But Ingmar’s not out of the woods yet, and as he returns home, he finds Barbro with a new-born baby – she is so determined not to force his hand that she is lying about the date of birth and refusing to name the father. Will Barbro’s stubbornness prevent the couple’s happiness? Step in our old friend, Strong Ingmar (Ivan Hedqvist) for the most satisfying and poetic of conclusions.

Even with the translation, these books stand the test of time and are remarkable commentaries on Swedish society. As for the films, the first two Sjostrom films are emotionally epic whereas Molander’s are the more commercial, crowd-pleasing epics. Maybe there’s a complete copy of Till österland out there and the chance to see these performers against the backdrop of changeless Jerusalem.

I read the Leopold Classic Library edition of the 1918 Velma Swanston Howard translation, nice laminated cover - available via Amazon et al.

All photographs from the Swedish Film Institute online archive here.

For more information on Selma's trip to Jerusalem there's an interesting post on the National Library of Israel's The Librarians' website from Hadar Ben-Yehuda.