A SAMI WEDDING (TIFF 2025) – Review by Rachel West
Weddings are meant to be celebrations, yet they often come with their share of tensions, particularly when clashing family dynamics and cultural traditions collide. In A Sami Wedding, those pressures are heightened by class hierarchies and a messy family structure. Premiering at TIFF as part of this year’s Primetime lineup showcasing scripted TV series from around the world, A Sami Wedding is a family drama set amid the reindeer herding community from series creator, co-writer and director Åse Kathrin Vuolab.
Garen (Sara Margrethe Oskal) is at the bottom of the social ladder in her Sami community of Kautokeino in northern Norway. She’s stuck in a loveless marriage and has become the de facto matriarch of her trio of younger siblings and ungrateful children. When her son Ailo gets engaged to Inga, the daughter of a wealthy reindeer-herding family headed by Garen’s nemesis, she sees this as a prime opportunity to change her social ranking. If she can pull out all the stops and arrange a spectacular wedding in less than a month, she may finally get the respect from her family and community that she craves.
Veteran actress Oskal, who directed the excellent The Tundra Within Me which played TIFF in 2023 (read an interview with her here), shines here as Garen. Her portrayal captures a woman desperate for validation from her peers and the ever-watchful eyes of her community, while fiercely guarding her family’s private struggles. Garen clings to appearances as a way of holding her fragile world together, yet her efforts are constantly undermined by relatives who neither respect tradition nor acknowledge her feelings.
Built around an ensemble with Oskal at the centre, Garen’s adult siblings behave like petulant children. There’s sister Belle (Inga Marja Utsi), an outspoken addict who can’t escape her reputation as the town “slut”, brothers Johan (Ivan Aleksander Sara Buljo), an immature manchild, and Henry (Ánte Siri), who has distanced himself – physically and culturally – from the conservative traditions of Kautokeino as an openly gay man. Viewers don’t get to know Garen’s siblings, children or husband much in the first part of A Sami Wedding . Instead, they act as surface-level foils to her struggles, only beginning to take shape as more nuanced characters as the series unfolds..
Therein lies the major issue with TIFF’s Primetime programme. The TV series presented to audiences is incomplete. It is impossible to screen an entire series in festival timeslots. For A Sami Wedding , that means only episodes one, two, and five are presented in a 90-minute programming block. What results is a disjointed fragment of a larger story and jumps in time that require viewers to try to fill in the missing pieces. It is not the fault of the titles in the programme, but a criticism of the programme itself. While one can hope international TV titles are picked up by a worldwide streaming platform, it is not a guarantee. The story may remain unfinished for most audiences.
What I was able to see of A Sami Wedding was intriguing and entertaining. As each episode reveals more about the supporting characters in Garen’s life, complex themes begin to emerge. Henry faced homophobia in Kautokeino, and now with his same-sex BIPOC partner Michael (Craig Stein) in tow for the wedding, old local prejudices surface. Johan is grappling with past traumas made more difficult by Henry abandoning the family for another life in New York. Belle, too, becomes more of a complex character as the episodes roll on. Painted in broad strokes as “difficult” in early interactions, it is revealed that a rape and the town’s perception of her have hardened her into the prickly personality we first meet. She becomes a tragic character when she repeats, “everyone gets raped”. It is used as a shield for the abuse she suffered to give her a hardened shell of protection. By the end of episode five, the silence surrounding sexual abuse, trauma, and homophobia are themes that A Sami Wedding has only had the briefest moments to touch upon.
Those expecting My Big Fat Greek Wedding vibes will be disappointed as there is more depth in Vuolab’s story. While there is humour present, this is first and foremost a family drama. Visually, A Sami Wedding is a stunner. Rich traditional Sami costumes and culture set against the snowy backdrop provides vibrant contrasts. The setting is both inviting and desolate, feeding into the show’s darker themes. The score only adds to the rich setting, punctuating the story with notes from traditional folk instruments.
Even within the confines of TIFF’s abbreviated Primetime showcase, A Sami Wedding establishes itself as a deeply resonant family drama. Vuolab has crafted a story that is as visually stunning as it is thematically rich, weaving issues of tradition, class, and trauma into something singular and striking. One can only hope the rest of the series can find its way to global audiences.
