The Emigrants/The New Land (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] [2016]

This monumental mid-nineteenth-century epic from JAN TROELL (Here Is Your Life) charts, over the course of two films, a poor Swedish farming family’s voyage to America and their efforts to put down roots in this beautiful but forbidding new world. Movie legends MAX VON SYDOW (The Seventh Seal) and LIV ULLMANN (Persona) give remarkably authentic performances as Karl-Oskar and Kristina, a couple who meet with one physical and emotional trial after another on their arduous journey. The precise, minute detail with which Troell depicts the couple’s story - which is also the story of countless other people who sought better lives across the Atlantic - is a wonder to behold. Engrossing every step of the way, the duo of The Emigrants and The New Land makes for perhaps the greatest screen drama about the settling of America.