Birds in the Earth

Curator: Elina Heikka

Birds in the Earth (Short film, 10:40 min, 2018)

The Sámi are the only indigenous people in Europe inhabiting the region which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland, and of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. For the Sámi people the region is called Sápmi.

In Marja Helander´s poetic film Birds in the Earth (2018) two young ballet dancers belonging to the indigenous Sámi minority, Birit and Katja Haarla, dance their way through villages in the traditional Sápmi homeland. Surprisingly, the dancers’ costumes change to Sámi costumes and finally the dancers end up on the steps of the Parliament in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The film examines the ongoing dispute on rights to use land and issues of cultural identity. In her earlier works, Helander has dealt with her own identity between Sámi and Finnish culture. Recently, she has focused on photographing the dark post-colonial landscapes of Sámi and especially observing the traces left on the environment by the global mining industry.

Helander’s awarded film has been included in the lineup of the prestigious Sundance Film Festival (2019) and received the Risto Jarva Award at the Tampere Film Festival, where it was described as immensely beautiful, devilishly funny and politically involved.

Galeria do Paço – UMinho
Reitoria, Largo do Paço, 4704-553 Braga

Opening Hours:

Tuesday – Saturday
10:00–12:30/14:00–18:30

Sunday and Monday
Closed