The second part to “The Emigrants” may not be as exciting or perilous for its lead characters, but its chronicle of 19th century America as an unforgiving world is difficult to surpass.

The second part to “The Emigrants” may not be as exciting or perilous for its lead characters, but its chronicle of 19th century America as an unforgiving world is difficult to surpass.
Charting a woman’s dour domestic life as a mother in early 20th century Sweden, and whose artistic awakening comes in the form of a camera, Troell’s late-career triumph is a layered, exquisite delight.
Jan Troell’s naturalistic if poetic debut feature may have been well-regarded in Swedish cinema, but it is difficult to be absorbed by a work that is too meandering and elliptical for its own good.
A ‘historical epic’ about a Swedish family emigrating to the States, told unhurriedly in the most intimate and natural of ways.