Landet som inte längre är

15 yrs 85 minutes • 2012 • 7.4

Peter Gerdehag, whose films Hästmannen and Kokvinnorna have been seen by hundreds of thousands of fascinated viewers, is the man behind Landet som inte längre är. He has followed life on a farm in Småland for several decades, first by taking photos and then, in the last eleven years, with a film camera. The film is a tribute to the farmers that almost everyone can claim descendance from. The Caremalm family, on the Kroxhult 1:4 farm, become symbols for the farmers who worked with tradition as compass before modern times swept in and scattered that kind of knowledge on all the world's winds. They themselves just say they live their lives, that they have a gift to take care of, a trusteeship. This has become a thoughtful, almost meditative film, without intrigues and conflicts. In other words a completely impossible movie idea, a documentary where the dairy cows' bell clocks have set the pace.