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Arne Sucksdorff

Arne Sucksdorff

Directing

Biography

Arne Edvard Sucksdorff (3 February 1917 – 4 May 2001) was a Swedish film director, considered one of cinema's greatest documentary filmmakers. He was particularly celebrated for his visually poetic and scenic nature documentaries. His works include Pojken i trädet (The Boy in the Tree) and the Academy Award-winning Människor i Stad (Symphony of a City).

Known For

Reflets de Cannes
5.0

No description available.

Reflets de Cannes

1954
The Guldbagge Awards
5.5

The Guldbagge Awards is an official and annual Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a rose chafer, better known by the name Guldbaggen. The awards, first presented in 1964 at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm, are overseen by the Swedish Film Institute. It is described as the Swedish equivalent of the Academy Awards. The awards ceremony was first televised in 1981.

The Guldbagge Awards

1981
June Night
6.1

A woman flees to avoid rumors of promiscuity, but is trailed by a reporter who wants to expose her dark past.

June Night

1940
Mr. Forbush and the Penguins
5.0

A self-absorbed young biologist takes on a six-month research post in Antarctica to study a penguin colony. Alone in Shackleton’s abandoned hut, with only radio contact and letters to his distant girlfriend, he endures the harsh winter and gradually forms a bond with the penguins—discovering resilience, humility, and a new sense of purpose.

Mr. Forbush and the Penguins

1971
The Great Adventure
7.1

Arne Sucksdorff’s celebrated nature film follows two brothers in rural Sweden as they witness a fox raid and secretly raise an orphaned otter. Told through an adult’s memories, it reflects on childhood, nature, and the fragile balance between wilderness and civilization. The film won the International Prize at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival.

The Great Adventure

1953
The Flute and the Arrow
6.9

Arne Sucksdorff’s ethnographic feature documents the life and rituals of the Muria people in the Bastar jungle of central India, focusing on their traditions, music, and relationship to the natural environment. Presented with Sucksdorff’s lyrical visual style, the film was selected for the 1958 Cannes Film Festival.

The Flute and the Arrow

1957
On the Far Side of the Earth
N/A

This four-episode Swedish documentary series by Arne Sucksdorff draws on footage shot over four years in Brazil—especially in the Pantanal wetlands—and is narrated from Sucksdorff’s personal diary. It combines images of plants, animals, landscapes, and daily camp life with moments of tension (e.g. threats to wildlife) and reflection on humanity’s relationship with nature.

On the Far Side of the Earth

1972
My Home Is Copacabana
6.9

Arne Sucksdorff’s drama follows four homeless children—Jorginho, Rico, Lici, and Paulinho—struggling to survive in the Rio de Janeiro slums. They shine shoes, scavenge food, and pickpocket while dreaming of escape from the streets. When Rico, once escaped from a brutal institution in Caxambu, falls ill, he chooses to return there rather than die outside. A somber portrait of poverty and resilience, the film was selected for the 1965 Cannes Film Festival.

My Home Is Copacabana

1965
The Boy in the Tree
7.0

Göte is a young teen who seems to be at odds with his family and may not know his own mind that well either. Discontented and rebellious, Göte joins up with two mean-spirited game poachers in spite of the fact that he loves animals and nature. This contradiction between his own feelings and his need to rebel reaches a climax when a forest ranger starts to track down the young men in ever-tightening circles.

The Boy in the Tree

1961
Arne Sucksdorff: Uma Vida Documentando a Vida
6.0

No description available.

Arne Sucksdorff: Uma Vida Documentando a Vida

2004
The Gulls
7.5

Arne Sucksdorff’s short documentary observes gulls raiding nests and stealing eggs with ruthless persistence. Though presented as pure nature study, the film was widely read as an allegory of Nazism—a symbolic parable of predation and violence during wartime. Sucksdorff himself denied such intent, but remarked that “a film that is not open to interpretation is a dead film.”

The Gulls

1944
Uma Vida Dividida
N/A

No description available.

Uma Vida Dividida

1999
A Divided World
6.9

A ten-minute study of wild animal life in a Swedish forest; stoat, fox, hare, and owl, who stalk and savage one another, are photographed with extraordinary vividness and intimacy. It is perhaps the most striking of Sucksdorff's animal studies, in spite of an abrupt introduction and ending.

A Divided World

1948
Symphony of a City
6.9

An impressionistic short film celebrating Stockholm’s rhythms of life, blending images of its streets, waterways, people, and architecture into a visual “symphony.” Winner of the Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Short Subject, One-Reel in 1949 — the first Swedish film ever to receive an Oscar.

Symphony of a City

1947
Time for Common Rudd
N/A

Also known as Reindeer Time and Inheritance, this 9-minute short by Arne Sucksdorff documents the Sámi people’s autumn migration as they guide their reindeer herds back to the forest lands. Blending ethnographic observation with lyrical nature imagery, the film follows the reindeer through mountain landscapes, calving, herding, and branding, underscoring the deep interdependence of humans, animals, and the northern environment.

Time for Common Rudd

1944
Living Storm
N/A

One of the so-called “Marshall films,” Living Storm was produced under the U.S.-backed European Recovery Program to illustrate postwar reconstruction. It presents images of business and industry in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, emphasizing the interdependence of the Scandinavian countries and their economic ties to the wider world.

Living Storm

1951
Indian Village
5.8

A short documentary by Swedish filmmaker Arne Sucksdorff portraying everyday life in a rural Indian village. Through carefully composed images of people, landscapes, and communal rhythms, the film offers an intimate view of village life. It was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.

Indian Village

1951
No image
N/A

A Swedish short film directed by Johan Falck with cinematography by Arne Sucksdorff and poetic narration written by Nobel laureate Harry Martinson. Accompanied by a score from Erik Baumann, Erland von Koch, and Albert Löfgren, the film blends lyrical text, music, and images of Swedish nature into what Sucksdorff himself described—along with An August Rhapsody—as a “hymn to the Swedish summer.”

This Land is Full of Life

1941
Shadow of the Hunter
9.0

Gryning is a short Swedish film by Arne Sucksdorff, presented without narration or dialogue. It follows a hunter tracking animals through the forest at daybreak, but as the dawn light transforms the landscape, he lowers his rifle, overcome by the beauty of the morning, and walks away. The film is also known by the English titles The Shadow of the Hunter and Dawn.

Shadow of the Hunter

1944
No image
N/A

A documentary about the Swedish film-maker, photographer and writer Arne Sucksdorff by his apprentice Stefan Jarl. The documentary includes several scenes from Sucksdorff's work and reveals the intimacy between two of Sweden's most important film-makers.

En film om Arne Sucksdorff

2000