Based on a novel which in turn was based on the true story of when 37 villagers in Nås, Dalarna, Sweden, sold all their belongings and emigrated to Jerusalem in 1896. There, they joined the American Colony led by Anna Spafford (the movie's "Mother"), widow of Horatio who penned the hymn "It Is Well With My Soul". Eventually, the colony crumbled, especially after Mrs. Spafford's death, and was ultimately dissolved amid inner conflicts. By then, many of the Swedish emigrants, not very used to the Middle Eastern climate and forbidden by Mrs. Spafford to accept any medical help, had succumbed. The last members of the original group passed away in Jerusalem in the 1960s, whereas descendants of others emigrated to the U.S. when the Israel-Palestinian conflicted started escalating in the late 1940s.
Based on two novels by famous Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf, Nobel Prize laureate for literature in 1909.