Sweet Land

I watched Sweet Land with my mother and her sister tonight. One of my favorites of the last year (I should do a list later). It's a simple love story (between Inge and Olaf--what lovely names!) about immigrants to Minnesota and their struggles to survive. It is also about silence, loneliness, and memories. It would be a very nice movie if it was just the historical narrative, but there is a prologue and a coda that fashion something more out of the story. They give transcendent meaning to the actions.

My favorite part of the movie is in the coda, the very last lines (assuming dancing is not dialogue). They are burying the grandmother (Inge) and the little girl asks this deep, profound question. Her father actually has a perfect response.

"What if I don't remember her?"

"I have a picture."

So this makes me wonder how I will remember the important things in my life. I can scarcely remember a thing that happened before school and very little that didn't occur in or as a reaction to it. It's not so surprising that my life is dominated by public education, but I worry that I'll let parts of the remainder be obscured by some new monolith. I need to practice. I want to remember.