Till Österland, the last of the four films based on Selma Lagerlöf ’s Jerusalem novels, was shot back-to-back with Ingmarsarvet, using many of the same actors, and premiered in February 1926, just a few weeks after the previous film had been released. It depicts the arrival of villagers from central Sweden to Palestine and their experiences in the Holy Land, ranging from religious ecstasy to homesickness. The film was shot partly in Jaffa and Jerusalem, so provides a rare opportunity to see how these locations appeared a century ago.
Of the film’s original footage of 2,578 metres, only 662 metres survived today, and these were preserved in 1977 from the nitrate negative. What survive are various scenes from five of the film’s seven reels, which were digitised for this reconstruction. An additional scene, the dance of the dervishes, was found in the short Selma Lagerlöf 80 år (1938), commemorating the anniversary of author Lagerlöf.
The intertitles come from the original title cards, and colours have been recreated from annotations on the original. Some stills and explanatory titles have been added to this reconstruction. The surviving footage of Till Österland is now placed in context and finally gives a faithful idea of the original film.

Jon Wengström