I Am Dina - Plot

Plot

In Northern Norway during the 1860s, a little girl named Dina accidentally causes her mother's death. Overcome with grief, her father refuses to raise her, leaving her in the care of the household servants. Dina grows up wild and unmanageable, with her only friend being the stable boy, Tomas. She summons her mother's ghost and develops a strange fascination with death as well as a passion for living. Family friend Jacob (Gérard Depardieu) encourages Dina's father to hire Chris Lorch, a tutor of American English, who introduces her to the cello. When Jacob asks for Dina's hand in marriage, Dina refuses. Her outraged father slaps her, prompting Dina to attack him. Known that Lorch and Dina have grown close, her father retaliates by sending Lorch away, devastating Dina. Unable to come to terms with Lorch's departure, Dina nearly kills Lorch in a fit of insanity.

When Dina (Maria Bonnevie) is old enough, she marries Jacob and moves to Reinsnes, a port he runs with his mother, Karen, and his stepsons Niels and Anders. Niels doesn't like Dina's wild ways, nor the fact that she has taken over accounting duties at Reinsnes. As Dina's eccentric tendencies become even stronger, Jacob suffers gangrene poisoning after breaking his leg when he falls of the roof of his mistress' house while trying to fix a leak. As Jacob does not appear to be getting better and takes a turn for the worse, Dina takes him on sled to the top of a cliff and pushes him off to his death, hoping to end his suffering and send him to a better place. Jacob's death brings Tomas back into her life and the two have a passionate affair. Several months later, she gives birth to baby boy that she names Benjamin, that she presumably had with Tomas. She then learns of Lorch's death when the latter bequeaths her his cello and his Writer's Reference.

When Benjamin is a several years old, he accidentally sets fire to the barn. Dina falls in love with a courageous, handsome Russian named Zhukovsky (Christopher Eccleston) who rushes into the burning barn to save her beloved horses. It turns out Zhukovsky had seen Dina several years ago in Bergen and was smitten by her, and has come to Reinsnes to court her. However, he leaves suddenly and Dina forces herself on Tomas.

Niels, deep into alcoholism, rapes a servant named Stina. When Dina finds out, she issues an ultimatum to Niels: Marry Stina or leave for America. Neils will not countenance marrying a servant, but cannot afford to leave for America. Zhukovsky then returns to Reinsnes to take a prisoner back to Bergen. When a drunken Niels staggers into the house, Dina announces that he too will soon be leaving, to America. Niels then decides to ask Stina to marry him, but she refuses. Overcome with rage, Niels hangs himself.

Dina's father then announces to Dina that Zhukovsky is an anarchist involved in a plot against the King, and is to hang. A distraught Dina rushes to Bergen to try and exonerate Zhukovsky. But when she visits him in prison and her visit's time is up, Dina attacks the guards, who then brutalize her, causing her to lose her baby with Zhukovsky. On the way back to Reinsnes, she is saved by Anders, who stops her bleeding. Her appeal is successful however, and Zhukovsky is released, though no one has seen him since. Several weeks later, Dina nearly drowns while teaching Benjamin how to sail but is miraculously saved by Zhukovsky who is on a nearby steamer. In her near death state, she dreams that she kills Zhukovsky when he announces that he is leaving her again. Dina then comes to, and asks if Zhukovsky is going to leave her again. Zhukovsky says he will always be leaving her, though he says he will always be coming back.