Relatively unknown in this country, Here Is Your Life nevertheless marked one of the most auspicious debuts in Swedish cinema, and launched the rather remarkable career of Jan Troell. Eddie Axberg-as well as a lengthy cast of great Swedish actors like Max von Sydow, Ulf Palme and Per Oscarsson-is featured in this story of a boy's coming of age during the First World War. Fourteen-year-old Olof (played with great understatement by Axberg) is ready to forsake his foster home and discover the world beyond the sterile landscape of Norrbotten. A life as rich in travails as it is in joys soon schools this education-hungry lad. Troell's extraordinary use of black-and-white photography, accentuated with color dream sequences, creates a film that is at once realistic and lyrical. On the film's screening at the 1968 San Francisco Film Festival it was noted, "Troell is a master of film characterization, and his version of Eyvind Johnson's autobiographical novel has the same kind of tender, detailed attention that Satyajit Ray gave to Pather Panchali. In the five-year period of this film-journey, we are exposed to a rich, unforgettable gallery of people, almost Dickensian in their warmth and grotesqueries of behavior, and behind the various encounters, Troell sketches in a visual commentary on Swedish life and character that transcends the period." As with many debuts, Jan Troell controls the artistry of his film with an unguarded enthusiasm, imprinting his personality on every aspect of this inspired first film.