Starring Maria Heiskanen and Jesper Christensen. In English with Swedish subtitles. Rated PG. Plays Friday to Tuesday, November 6 to 10, at the Vancity Theatre

Jan Troell entered Swedish cinema bound and determined to make movies that were the exact opposite of those then being produced by his famous fellow countryman, Ingmar Bergman. Troell has always preferred outdoorsy dramas to Strindbergian studies of the soul; his characters are usually working class; his period pieces generally have a socialist edge; and the nonexistence of lunch is sometimes of more immediate concern than the nonexistence of God.

All of these elements are very much present in Everlasting Moments, a biopic about a woman that few of us have ever heard of. Maria Larsson (Maria Heiskanen) was a Finnish immigrant to Malmo who wound up marrying a semi-brute of a dockworker. Most of her time is spent raising a large family (seven kids) and trying to keep her husband off the sauce (he repeatedly renounces strong drink at temperance meetings, then backslides, usually after seducing a willing barmaid). Lutheranism does battle with anarchism in the hearts and minds of local workers, and life contains pitifully few comforts.

For Maria, the greatest solace is provided by a camera she wins in a lottery. Without ever separating herself from the fatalistic Protestantism that prevents her from seeking a divorce, this harassed housewife does take the occasional snapshot—usually of washerwomen, but occasionally of kings—creating, in the process, a photographic record of life in early 20th-century Sweden that will eventually constitute an important national heritage.

Shot mainly in sepia by the director himself, Everlasting Moments is a slow and stately journey, but so what? The scenery is so amazing we’re actually sad when the “train” finally reaches the “station”. In the final analysis, we wish these moments were even more everlasting than they already are.