Fourteen Years in China
This page avoids major plot turns, twists, and ending details. It’s designed to help first-time viewers decide if this movie is right for them.What counts as a spoiler can vary by viewer.
Ólafsson was a poor country boy from Iceland, born in 1895, who at 18 years of age received the call that changed his life. Suddenly he was obsessed with the idea of becoming a missionary in China. In spite of all the obstacles in his way he made it first to Norway, where he got into a missionary school, and then to the land of his dreams, China, through America, Canada and Japan. In China he met his Norwegian wife, who was aslo a missionary, and four of their children were born there. Ólafsson fled with his family to Hong Kong and then to Europe after the city of Shanghai had surrendered to the Japanese in 1937. The documentary is mostly made of old films by Ólafsson himself and some old film stock.