‘It’s About Refugees Today’: Erik Poppe on the Contemporary Angle of Haugesund Winner ‘The Emigrants’
Marta Balaga Norwegian director Erik Poppe takes on Vilhelm Moberg’s acclaimed series of novels in “The Emigrants,” his new historical drama about a struggling Swedish family which emigrates to the U.S. in 1849, searching for a better future. “It’s probably the most classic work of literature in the whole Scandinavia,” he told Variety, taking about the 2022 Haugesund Festival winner ahead of its national premiere at the 50th Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund. Which is why, when approached to direct the film, he had only one reservation: He had to make it his own.