EN

Never to Return

Original title: “Utan återvändo…?”

”…There is always something to disturb our joy in this world, that we might continually be reminded that this is not our home for all time, rather that we always are upon our way, repeatedly taking farewell.”

Ida Lindgren, née Nibelius

NEVER TO RETURN…?

“Never to Return…?” is a film, a poem about Man’s will to survive.

Ida Lindgren, née Nibelius, born 1829 in Scania, Sweden, emigrated with her husband Gustav and their five children to Kansas, USA, in 1870.

Shamiram Shamon, born 1966 in Quimichly, Syria, emigrated with her family to Trollhättan, Sweden, in 1980.

Ida writes letters home to her mother in Sweden, Shamiram talks of her life…

We see the two women and their families on their long journeys. We are shown the emigrant’s alienation, the difficulties of adapting, the powerful longing for home and the great dream of returning.

We see pictures of the past repeated in the present as if in a mirror image. The cycle is completed with the four seasons – Nature is witness to our shortcomings; Sweden’s history of emigration is interspersed with astonishing occurrences; these are interwoven with fates of Ida and Shamiram.

A film by: Antonia Dubravka Carnerud

Director of photography: Peter Östlund

Original music: Elia Cmiral

Editors: Jean-Frédéric Axelsson, Antonia D. Carnerud

1st assistant editor: Gunilla Hallström

Sound mixers: Hazze Östlund, Lars Rechlin, Gunnar Nilsson

Research : Gun Ekroth

Script consultants: Hillar Loor, Görel Elf

Ida’s letters read by: Marianne Ahrne

Narrator: Jonathan Mair

Sound editors: Jean-Frédéric Axelsson, Peter Larsson

Music recording: Atlantis Studio, L.A., USA