Vesterheim Filmprat: Stolen by Ann-Helene Læstadius (Online)

This free event is led by Dr. Maren Johnson, Luther College’s Associate Professor of Nordic Studies and Torgerson Center for Nordic Studies Director, who facilitates a regular bokprat (book group), discussing Scandinavian authors and Scandinavian life.

June’s discussion is a twist on the usual format, and features a discussion of Netflix’s new film adaptation of Ann-Helén Laestadius’s novel Stolen.

This spellbinding Swedish story follows a young indigenous woman as she struggles to defend her family’s reindeer herd and culture amidst xenophobia, climate change, and a devious hunter whose targeted kills are considered mere theft in the eyes of the law. Based on real events, Ann-Helén Laestadius’s award-winning novel Stolen has been adapted into a film by Netflix that is part coming-of-age story, part love song to a disappearing natural world, and part electrifying countdown to a dramatic resolution—a searing depiction of a forgotten part of Sweden.

Dr. Maren Anderson Johnson is assistant professor of Nordic Studies and Director of the Richard L. and Judith A. Torgerson Center for Nordic Studies at Luther College. She teaches courses in Norwegian language and contemporary Nordic culture. Johnson received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Scandinavian language and literature from the University of Washington and B.A. in Norwegian language and literature from Pacific Lutheran University.