As the main actors live within the Sámi reindeer community, they needed time to accept their roles as many had other tings to do than to act: namely to tender reindeers.
“I’m thinking that this is a trilogy. Not that I’ve figured out the third part yet, but there really should be one.”
Brace Your Heart (Gör hjärtat hårt), presented by the Toronto International Film Festival as “Amanda Kernell’s luminous third drama (-) a richly observed portrait of love, resilience, and the enduring strength of Sámi women in northernmost Europe”, shares traits with her highly acclaimed debut feature Sámi Blood (Sameblod, 2016). Both stories focus on a young woman from Swedish Sápmi, both go deep into the Sámi mindset, both deal with the notion of acceptance. But whereas Elle-Marja in Sámi Blood aims at becoming a proper Swede, Ejva in Brace Your Heart seeks approval as a proper reindeer herder, an urgent task, as she’s just lost her father and now has become the new family head. No trial run is provided, she’s thrown straight into “real time”, expected to master some complex tasks quite instantly.
“It’s clearly a deadly profession, one of the most perilous in our corner of the world. Nature gives, but also takes, sometimes a human life, without remorse.”
The Sámi title of Brace Your Heart is Garrat du Váimmu – literally meaning “harden your heart” – a phrase colloquially used in the Sámi community. Kernell heard it from time to time during the shoot.
“When I did the casting tests, especially with the older characters, I had them improvising together with Elli Sara, and they often brought in this expression. It’s used as a piece of advice for a young herder, testing new ground: ‘It’s a tough life. Brutal things will happen. So brace your heart.’ A preparation for an existence where you indeed need to be prepared.”
Not just nature and reindeer, but also some other beasts cross paths with Ejva; encounters of the more emotional kind with one man and then another man, involving acts of affection, hostility, love and jealousy, at times by choice, at other times not – even a curse at one point (early in the process, the film was actually called “The Curse: A Love Story”). Experiencing a turbulent time in her life, the advice of “bracing your heart” indeed turns out to be useful during Ejva’s radical journey.
“To me, this story deals with forgiveness, and with being able to move on after traumatic events when you live in a society where really everything needs to be forgiven in the name of survival. It’s about healing and being able to heal, and about freeing yourself from a difficult situation, especially when you don’t have the option of just leaving.”
The distinct Sámi dynamic plays a big part in the film, depicted as truthfully and authentically as possible. Kernell’s personal Sámi roots remains one of her creative driving forces, and through her casting process, a group of players with and without acting experience have been handpicked. Ejva is played by Elli Sara Valkeapää, who appeared in the 2022 Venice Biennale ÁRRAN 360° art installation by Ann Holmgren Aurebekk. Andte Gaup-Juuso, who plays Heaika, the herder Ejva first gets involved with, had the lead in the 2015 short film Sámi Bojá. Among the more experienced actors are Anni-Kristiina Juuso, appearing in a dozen films the last 20 years, including an Amanda-awarded performance in Nils Gaup’s The Kautokeino Rebellion (Kautokeino-opprøret, 2008), while Vincent Niia, who plays Nejla, Heaika’s cousin with whom Ejva falls in love, is a brand new face.
“We began to cast about three years before shooting, and started out with the main characters. Elli Sara was the very first one I found, and immediately felt that this is Ejva – she can be both tough and brittle and carry the story. And while there are varied degrees of experience among those on screen, they all have one thing in common: They all live and work within the reindeer community, either with full-time herding or as members of herder families. That aspect was probably the most important one, in order to give the film a true authenticity. It also presented a problem, however, as many had more important things to do than to act, namely tending the reindeer. Some hesitated for over a year before coming on board. I’m deeply grateful they finally said yes.”
Filmed in the Kiruna region of Northern Sweden, Brace Your Heart is produced between Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Bulgaria and supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond. As on Kernell’s last feature Charter (2020), the head producer is Eva Åkergren, who served as line producer of Sámi Blood, where the two first met.
“We just clicked,” Åkergren remembers. “With an enormous respect that goes both ways.”
Already early on, Åkergren aimed at a five-country production line-up, which eventually became Sweden (Nordisk Film), Norway (Forest People), Denmark (Nordisk Film), Iceland (Compass Films), and Bulgaria (Invictus).
“My first plan was to try to get all the five Nordics all together for this film, and I almost succeeded. Still, it turned out brilliantly, a real good constellation. Forest People in Norway is also our Sámi co-producer – they were very hands-on and helped us greatly with the casting, among other things. Nordisk Film in Denmark came on board almost immediately and very naturally, as Amanda usually does most of her post-production work in Denmark. Iceland’s Compass Film contributed with crew and post-production. And yes – Bulgaria is also along. I was the Swedish Producer on the Move in Cannes in 2024, and Kalin Kalinov was the Bulgarian representative. At some point, I happened to air a bit of frustration regarding some missing funding, and the two of us started to brainstorm in order to find the money. And suddenly, Bulgaria provided it via Invictus, Kalin’s company. I’d like to recommend every producer to work with Kalin at some point, he’s the biggest supporter you can find.”
Herself being from Helsingborg in the southernmost region of Sweden, Åkergren has been most amicably received up north. In the time to come, she’ll also be lecturing on film and series production at Kalix Folkhögskola, very much up in the northernmost corner of Sweden.
To Amanda Kernell, Eva Åkergren has been an all-knowing administrator of Brace Your Heart, as well-prepared as humanly possible for everything from weather changes to mosquito frequency. Åkergren, in turn, refers to team and cast as “true out-and-out superheroes”.
“We’ve tried to make the film we wanted to make,” says Kernell, “while constantly being at the mercy of nature. I hope we succeeded.”
Brace Your Heart film world premiered in the Platform section at the Toronto International Film Festival Tuesday, September 15, and will compete at the San Sebástian Film Festival, starting tomorrow and playing out September 18-26.
From the “Nordic Connects” seminar and Nordic co-productions to audiovisual innovation and Sámi storytelling, the region will feature across several strands of the Basque gathering.
At the Marché du Film, Indigenous film leaders discussed cinema as a tool of cultural sovereignty, cross-border collaboration and resistance in times of geopolitical pressure on the Artic.
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