The inner lightness and darkness of its artistically prone turn-of-the-century matriarch Maria Larsson (Maria Heiskanen) comes across in the lush muted colors of director's Jan Troell's resonant film.
At home with her three children and abusive husband Sigfrid (Mikael Persbrandt), Maria rediscovers a professional camera that she promptly attempts to sell to a local photography shop owner named Sebastian.
Sebastian encourages Maria to use the camera to take pictures and later tutors her in developing the images that she artfully captures.
Overflowing with a Bergmanesque use of natural light, "Everlasting Moments" is a true-to-life period drama that is as much about the virtue of tolerance as it is about an oppressed woman's struggle to establish her own identity and express her artistic voice.
Its naturalistic performances and rough-hewn style carry the film into a range of unfettered human emotion and experience appropriate to the film's evocative title.
(IFC Films) Not Rated. 131 mins.
