Johan (1921)

Curiosità

• Basato su: Juha

Johan is a 1921 Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller, based on the 1911 novel Johan by Juhani Aho. It tells the story of a young girl, married to an older farmer, who elopes with a handsome stranger, crossing dangerous rapids on a small boat in the process.

Production

The film was shot in Norrbotten in July and August 1920. As Finland was still at war with the Soviet Union at the time (the peace would only be signed in October 1920 with the Treaty of Tartu) Stiller chose to shoot it in Sweden, near the city of Kalix.

The most spectacular parts of the film were shot on the river Kalix with its roaring Kamlunge rapids. No tricks or stuntmen were used for the filming and Stiller paid credit to the courage of Urho Somersalmi who steered the boat through the rapids and of Jenny Hasselqvist, who was the first woman to make the travel down the Kamlunge.

Stiller later told how the scene had to be shot on Friday the 13th, and how it was very close to a disaster. Somersalmi was washed overboard at one of the wildest part of the rapids and saved by Hasselqvist. Later, the boat with the camera started sinking and the film was saved by the photographer who jumped overboard and waded to the shore holding the camera high above his head. Stiller declared that he would never make another film in rapids.

Local inhabitants were used as extras and the old man was played by a 70-year-old local fisherman.

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