Jarl Hemmer

Based on a Finnish poem, The Kingdom of Rye is a gorgeous romantic drama set in rural northern Sweden during the harvest. It features a young couple whose love affair is fraught with Hardy-esque complications and an unhappily married wife of the landowner.

Elias, who is preparing for his wedding, dances drunk with a beggar in front of the church and dies of a heart attack. His fiancée Anna is devastated by grief and on the verge of suicide. In his despair, he experiences a religious awakening, which is supported by Antti, who is in love with Anna, and some of the villagers. The pastor sees the revivalist movement as a threat to himself, the church, and public order.

After a weekend of dancing and camping on a recreation island near the city, a young factory worker decides to stay and cut work for a day. Walking around the now deserted island, he meets a beautiful woman camping alone and sunbathing in the nude on the beach. A hot romance flares up between the worker and the more upper-class married lady, lasting through the light-filled nights of the whole summer week until the woman's much older husband returns to the island the next weekend.

Pastor Samuel Bro has lost his faith in God. He is in conflict with the Church Council and is rejected from his priesthood. He moves away to a different life.