Sweet Land (2005)

Interesting facts

Sweet Land is a 2005 American independent period drama film written and directed by Ali Selim. It is an adaptation of the 1989 short story "A Gravestone Made of Wheat" by Will Weaver. The film stars Elizabeth Reaser, Tim Guinee, Lois Smith, Ned Beatty, John Heard, Alex Kingston and Alan Cumming. It premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival on October 21, 2005, and went into limited release on December 1, 2006. The film won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

Production

Director Ali Selim first read Will Weaver's short story "A Gravestone Made of Wheat" in 1989 in the Sunday magazine of the Star Tribune, a Minneapolis newspaper. After purchasing the film rights, he spent much of the 1990s working on a script in his spare time as he worked as a director of television commercials.

Two early supporters of the project were actors Alan Cumming, who played Frandsen, and Gil Bellows, who signed on as a co-producer. Selim met Cumming while screening a short film in Los Angeles; he knew Bellows from directing him in a steak-sauce commercial. Bellows helped Selim get the script into workshops in Los Angeles, where the reaction was positive; however, no Hollywood studios were interested in making the film.

In 2004, Selim raised about $1 million to produce the film himself, mostly from private investors in Minnesota, and pre-production began in July, with shooting planned for that fall.

Dan Futterman, whom Selim also had directed in commercials, was originally cast as Olaf but had to drop out when his film Capote went into production. Futterman suggested Tim Guinee as his replacement.

The role of Frandsen, a character that does not appear in the short story, was written for Alan Cumming. Alex Kingston was a friend of Cumming's from their early days in London.

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