Sweet Land

However beautiful the cinematography, commercial director Ali Selim's debut feature is a bland, drawn-out throwback to Jan Troell's '70s epics THE EMIGRANTS, THE NEW LAND and ZANDY'S BRIDE, in which Scandinavian immigrants build the backbone of a nation through hard work and mail-order brides. Tucked deep inside two unnecessary wrap-around narratives — in the first, set in present day Minnesota, a middle-age man considers selling the family farm after the death of his grandmother; in the second, set in the 1960s, Grandma (Lois Smith) prepares to bury her husband of 48 years — is the rather simple story of Inge (Elizabeth Reaser), a young German woman who, in 1920, is...