Vlog e Blog. |
O Poder das Histórias! |
Vlog e Blog. |
O Poder das Histórias! |
Whenever Ann-Helén Laestadius starts to write, she returns to her hometown of Kiruna. From this Arctic city in the northernmost reaches of Sweden, the author travels out to her parents’ villages of Nedre Soppero and Silkimuotka to seek inspiration for her novels. “When I am home in the villages during summer, we always go out and fish in the Lainio River, and I have a special rock there that I stand on,” she says. “Things happen when I stand there looking out over the rapids; stories and ideas come to me, as well as characters.”
Kiruna, which sits above a vast iron ore mine, is often used as a starting point by travellers looking for adventure, enticed by such Arctic marvels as the northern lights, the midnight sun, and the strikingly beautiful, if hostile, wilderness. It’s become known as the “city on the move” thanks to an ambitious – and controversial – project to shift the entire town, building by building, 3km to the east to prevent it from quite literally collapsing into the mine below. But to around 18,000 people, including Laestadius, the city is home. The writer, who is of Sami and Tornedalian descent – two of Sweden’s national minorities – describes it as “a special town”. “You can walk around and hear Swedish, Finnish, Meänkieli, and Sami spoken. The mixture of cultures is important and beautiful, but it can also create conflicts, which I often write about.” Conflict is a central theme in Laestadius’s novel Stolen, which was released in the UK last month and is now being adapted into a Netflix film with Sami director Elle Márjá Eira. It tells the story of nine-year-old Sami girl Elsa, who witnesses the brutal killing of her reindeer calf by a local hunter; he later threatens her into silence, forcing her to carry her secret into adulthood. A decade on, Elsa struggles to find justice in the face of escalating violence and prejudice that terrorises her family and community. Tensions rage between the villagers and Sami reindeer herders, as well as within Elsa herself. |