Brace Your Heart

With Brace Your Heart (Garrat du Vaimmu), Swedish-Sami director Amanda Kernell has crafted a love letter to her father’s culture and the disappearing lifestyle of reindeer herders across the Sami region of northernmost Scandinavia. The story turns on 20-year-old Ejva, who has just lost her father and is poised to inherit his reindeer herd—if she can prove herself to the men who dominate the local profession. She starts a relationship with Heaika (Andte Gaup-Juuso), which gets her into the herding group, but she’s not particularly interested in him. The fact that Ejva’s future is ultimately decided by her community doesn’t detract from the strength, confidence and resilience she demonstrates as a young woman in a male-dominated field. Heart presents a subtle but decidedly feminist tale that is both beautiful and unique.