Mio in the Land of Faraway

Did You Know?

• The film's theme song became a top three hit in Sweden.
• Christian Bale reappeared in December 1987 as the lead of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun.

Plot

The film begins in modern Stockholm, where orphaned Bosse lives with neglectful guardians Aunt Edna and Uncle Sixten and is bullied by other children. His best friend is Benke, whose father Bosse envies. One night, Bosse runs away to seek his own father and meets Mrs Lundin, a shopkeeper who gives him an apple and asks him to mail a postcard to the Land of Faraway. After mailing it, the apple turns golden. Bosse then frees a genie from a bottle, who transports him to the Land of Faraway. There, Bosse learns his true name is Mio and that his father is the King. He receives a horse named Miramis and befriends Jum-Jum, who resembles Benke. From a whispering well, Mio learns of the evil knight Kato, who kidnaps children and replaces their hearts with stone, turning those who resist into birds. Mio, Jum-Jum, and Miramis journey to the Forest of Mysteries, where the Weaver Woman mends Mio's torn cape. Hearing the Bird of Grief lament for Kato's victims, Mio learns of his prophesied destiny to confront Kato in the Land Outside.

Production

The fantasy film "Mio in the Land of Faraway" was a joint production between Sweden's Nordisk Tonefilm International AB and the Soviet Union's Gorky Film Studio, with support from the Swedish Film Institute, Norway Film Development, and Sovinfilm. Its budget reached roughly fifty million Swedish kronor, making it the priciest adaptation of an Astrid Lindgren book released while she was alive. Principal photography ran from March through July 1986. Russian director Vladimir Grammatikov led an international cast of British, Scandinavian, and Russian actors. Scenes were shot in Stockholm, Moscow, the Crimea, and at Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland. The movie was filmed in English, then dubbed into Swedish and Russian. For his part as the villain Kato, Christopher Lee wore a steel hand. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster struck while the crew was filming in Ukraine, forcing an evacuation and a one-month delay. Christian Bale later recalled that upon returning, a Geiger counter checked every dinner plate. Derek Meddings handled the special effects. The theme song "Mio My Mio" was written by former ABBA members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, and performed by the band Gemini. Anders Eljas composed the background score with help from Andersson, performed by the Soviet Film Symphony Orchestra under conductor Sergei Skripka. The film marked the acting debut of Nicholas Pickard and the first feature-film appearance of Christian Bale, who later that year starred in Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun."

Release

The film appeared at the Moscow International Film Festival in July 1987, with its Russian dub competing in the Children's Films category. It also screened at the Norwegian International Film Festival on 18 August 1987. The Swedish premiere took place on 16 October 1987. In Sweden, it is distributed by Sandrew Metronome, and in the United States by Miramax Films under the title The Land of Faraway. It was released on VHS in 1988 and 1992, and on DVD in 2001 and 2007.

Reception

In Sweden, the film grossed about 17,800,000 Swedish kronor at the box office but received poor reviews. Swedish critics called it 'canned Astrid Lindgren' and 'an incoherent jumble of landscapes and cast members, badly dubbed to boot', and noted its omission of psychological nuances from the original novel. The film's international eclecticism was contrasted unfavorably with earlier Lindgren adaptations. Elsewhere, Variety praised the film's appearance and production values as well as Christopher Lee's performance, but criticized its handling of the text and actors. Dreamwatch called it a 'strange, otherworldly film' and an 'intriguing curio', but criticized its sentimentality and 'sub-Tolkien dialogue'. The Chicago Reader described it as 'unimaginative' with 'wooden' acting, again citing Lee as an exception. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy praised the early urban fantasy scenes as 'beautifully effective' but found later scenes 'cliché-ridden and turgid', summing it up as a 'tired, imitative and cynical' adaptation. The film won the Cinekid Film Award in Amsterdam in 1988.