“Stolen,” a movie released on April 12, is about the journey of a young woman in Sweden frustrated by police inaction who refuses to back down when a man targets the livelihood of her Indigenous community. The young woman battles to preserve her indigenous heritage of training and raising reindeer amidst a society plagued by rising xenophobia, looming threats of climate change endangering reindeer herding and despair leading to youth suicides.
This movie was mediocre — it mainly portrayed drama as the main genre which isn’t my type of movie. Despite the great story, the movie itself wasn’t very thrilling or exciting. It was the same problem recurring multiple times until the end when they found a solution for the murder of the reindeer.
The main character, Elsa (Elin Kristina Oskal) is also Sámi, having grown up in Saltdal, Nordland. During her school years, Elin was the only Sámi student in her class. Elin stated that it was important to cast Sámi actors, as they would be familiar with reindeer herding as well as the struggles the Sámi community faces.
One of the things I disliked was that they tell you who is killing all the reindeer instead of having to play along and find out with the characters in the movie. If the reindeer murders were a mystery, the movie would have been much more entertaining and would have received much more engagement from viewers.
I will admit, the costumes were nice. They brought the feeling of Indigenous heritage and culture to the movie which was the main point of the film that was seen in Elsa’s outfits. The scenery for the movie was also fitting. Sweden is known to be cold and a snowy place which is where the movie was filmed and the setting and costumes portrayed just that. The acting could have been better — there were many scenes where the characters should’ve been sad or happy, which wasn’t shown very well. For example, when Elsa’s friend committed suicide it was forgotten about almost immediately.
The movie started well and more fast-paced, but then became slower and more boring the more it went on. It started with how the woman grew up but then fast-forwarded to her life now which just felt like they were trying to make the movie longer.
The best part in my opinion was when the killer found out that the woman called the cops on him. It began the climax of the movie, where he was trying to kill her now and eventually captured her — fortunately, the woman was able to lead him away. It was my favorite because it was the point that the whole story was leading up to.
Overall this movie is meant for people who like drama and have connections to the movie, whether it’s through the love for animals or Swedish culture. It is very slowly paced making it feel like a book rather than a movie — not much happens but there are key events that do happen that feel like chapters. The movie felt dragged out and easily could have been way shorter. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone because I feel like to enjoy this movie you have to have a connection to the plot or the characters.
“Stolen:” ★★☆☆☆
