The Outlaw and His Wife

A man wanted for stealing sheep out of hunger conceals his identity and takes work on a wealthy widow's farm. She falls in love with him. When his past comes out, the two flee together into the mountains. They live there for years. The mountain protects them first and then isolates them. The subject is not escape but freedom turning into its own prison. In the second half the outside world disappears entirely and what remains is two people and winter; the snowstorm at the end is the consequence. The form uses nature not as background but as a character. Much of the film was shot in real mountains and real weather, an unusual choice in 1918 that became the known signature of Swedish silent cinema. The source is a play by the Icelandic writer Jóhann Sigurjónsson. Victor Sjöström directed and played the lead; he later married Edith Erastoff, who plays the woman. It was widely shown across Europe and became one of the most discussed Swedish films of its time. Who it is for: viewers who like silent cinema and narratives built on landscape. Who it is not for: anyone wanting pace; the film is long and its final section is almost entirely a two-hander.