Ummikkos

About losing roots and taking them back.

One winter evening, Jonna sits in her newly bought farm, trying to learn Meänkieli, her grandfather's language, something she never learned as a child. The language grandfather now only speaks when the blood clot has taken Swedish away from him.

Outside the window, Lasse approaches. He who once owned the same farm, the one who left the village many years ago, but who is now being driven back, for reasons not even he himself understands.

On the other side of the world, Markus, Lasse's son, ponders what his last name means, and why he can't seem to get used to the new sounds of the new big city.

Katarina remembers the fight they waged in the eighties. The battle over language, identity and culture. The one they brought against decades of Swedishization policy and shame. The battle they eventually won, but at what cost? Was it worth it?

What do one's roots mean? What does one's origin mean, if you have had to leave culture behind? Who do you become if you have not been allowed to speak your language or have never been able to learn it? And is it possible to take its origins back? Ummikkos is a newly written drama about the aspirations of the people of Torne Valley from the forties until today. Stories of personal destinies woven together into a beautiful, sad and harrowing story of struggle, forced, or refusing to adapt, of being uprooted from one's roots. A fate shared by many Ummikkos around the world today. Ummikko is Meänkieli for a person who does not speak the language of the environment. A word for Tornedalians, Kvens and Lantalaiset who have not been taught Meänkieli. Already in the foyer, the audience is greeted by Torne Valley experiences for all the senses. Tornedalsteatern has been commissioned to create a knowledge-raising exhibition in connection with Ummikko's tour. The appetizer, as the exhibition is called, is part of the reconciliation process between the state and the minority.