'Iron-Ore Idyll' in Scandinavian Sápmi

This paper describes the Northern Swedish mining company LKAB (Luossavaara Kiirunavaara AB) and their development of company communication through film in the post-war period. Specifically, I look at how the increased mechanization and rationalization of the work was communicated and how this was portrayed with optimism for a better future for all – and not as a disruptive element to what it had been in the past. As the filmmaking was outsourced from a mining engineer doing the directing and manuscript together with a cameraman from Svensk Kulturfilm – to a career filmmaker Gunnar Höglund of Nordisk Tonefilm – I point out that use of the films had become more targeted towards different audiences – leaving space for some films in a large order by LKAB of artistic ambitions. Then, using the example of Ferrum (Gunnar Höglund, 1963) intended for the public both in Sweden and abroad, I show how mechanization and rationalization is portrayed audio-visually as part of a greater Iron-Ore Idyll.