This film was recently restored (not digitally) by the Swedish film institute, had its original intertitles reinserted and received colour tinting via filters (hand tinting would have bee desirable but was not cost effective here).The storyline has an overegging of hysteria even by silent movie standards with both leads waifish, prone to fainting, and racoon-eyed, as was the fashion of the time! The plot is also quite ludicrous. I think the film is important for two reasons though, firstly I think it's interesting to look at the material that influenced of Ingmar Bergman. You can definitely see that here with the travelling artistes that first unite our two sensitive young ones. Secondly, the montage is very good in places, including a painting that comes to life, a nasty dream sequence, and a quite weird animal-phobic hallucination.Gunnar Hede is frustrated at his existence in the tomb of Munkhyttan, the family pile. Grandad, who he hears stories about was an itinerant fiddler before striking it rich with a dangerous reindeer-importing scheme. Gunnar yearns to emulate his grandfather, but mother will have none of it. The scenes that the movie is famous for show reindeer driving, and includes an astonishing river crossing where the reindeer swim across a wide river, snaking away with the current. Gunnar must earn Munkhyttan and win the girl. That is the movie! It may sound strange but the most touching scene for me was of Ingrid helping Gunnar during a weak moment, it is so rare to see a woman helping a man in a movie. I heard somewhere recently that, "the one thing women will never forgive in a man, is weakness".One very pretty scene was Gunnar staring at himself in the water, not quite sure how they filmed it, it looked as if I the audience member were staring at my own reflection!

The cast and credits read " a story in five acts' but in my copy only the end of the first act is indicated.The story roughly features three parts: 1) The castle where the hero spends his childhood listening to his grandma's tales of herds of reindeer ,with a father who shows some affection and an over possessive mother who wants her son to take care of their valuable property.Strolling players perform before the castle and the young hero whose passion is violin (and not gentleman-farming)meets a girl ,Ingrid.He falls out with his mum and leaves his narrow world for the broader horizons of the wild north.2) The scenes with the herd of wild reindeer are still impressive today;Gunnar dragged through the snow by a reindeer must have inspired lots of other movies.When they come to his rescue,his psyche is shot :he is seeing things (a dog becomes a reindeer).Ingrid's dream is not filmed conventionally .A sinister-looking lady (Death) enters her room and she understands that Gunnar has fallen into someone's wicked spell.Some kind of premonitory dream,for,leaving her house,she meets him walking on the path,helped by his mates cause he is completely out of his mind.3) Only love can help Gunnar,a thing his mother never gave to him.So Ingrid takes care of him and finally by bringing back old memories (the violin) ,she becomes his Dr Freud but she doesn't know it.Einar Hanson is particularly good as an insane man ,counting his coins again and again..

'Gunar Hedes saga' is fine example of Mauritz Stiller art and exceptional treatment of nature in Swedish early films, especially by Sjöstrom and Stiller. Snow scenes with reindeers are simply beautiful. I strongly recommend for fans of silent films.

Gunnar Hede is raised by a strict mother, who wants him to become respectable to match his family's wealth. He is more interested in his grandfather, who started as an itinerant violin player, but got rich by leading a herd of wild reindeer south to market. He falls for a violinist working with a married couple of traveling performers and renounces his fortune to go with them. He then tries to earn a fortune by driving reindeer to market, but it doesn't work out and he goes insane. He is finally restored to sanity by the violinist when she returns with the performers.The most fun part are the couple (Blomgren and Stava), though they only get a few minutes screen time. The shots of the reindeer are interesting, and the shots of Gunnar Hede being dragged through the snow by a reindeer are well done.