
Sawah
2019

2000
Director
Geir Hansteen Jörgensen
Runtime
128 minutes
Average Rating
No ratings yetSynopsis
A 15-year-old Somalian boy meets a 40-year-old Iranian man in a refugee camp in Skåne, in the south of Sweden. With the threat of deportation hanging over them, they decide to take their faiths in their own hands and together they go on a journey in the Swedish summer.
Overall Score
Good
Category Breakdown
LGBTQ+ Representation
The film lacks explicit evidence of LGBTQ+ characters or non-cisnormative identities. The focus remains on the bond between a Somali youth and an Iranian man without confirming queer orientations.
Gender Representation
The narrative centers on male characters, which risks reinforcing patriarchal structures. However, it potentially subverts masculine archetypes by emphasizing vulnerability and shared struggle over traditional dominance.
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
The film achieves high diversity by centering Somali and Iranian characters in a European setting. This placement disrupts the Eurocentric gaze by making displaced individuals the narrative heart.
Religious & Cultural Diversity
The story critiques Western institutional power through the protagonists' personal faith. It prioritizes subjective morality over the rigid structures of state-sanctioned religion or secular bureaucracy.
Disability Representation
There is no mention of characters with visible or invisible disabilities within the narrative.
Strengths
Areas for Improvement
AI Analysis
The New Country stands out for its intentional focus on the migrant experience, placing non-white, non-Anglo-Saxon subjects at the center of a Swedish landscape. This approach effectively challenges the homogeneity of Western cinema by granting agency to displaced individuals. While the film excels in racial and cultural representation, it lacks breadth in other areas. The narrative is heavily male-centric and does not provide explicit representation for LGBTQ+ identities or characters with disabilities. Ultimately, the film is a meaningful exploration of identity and displacement. It succeeds by deconstructing traditional institutional authority and focusing on the intersection of individual spirituality and systemic instability.

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