Finnish Director Tiina Lymi Is ‘Not Afraid Anymore’ and Neither Is ‘Stormskerry Maja,’ New Feminist Heroine With a ‘Cool Head and a Warm Heart’

variety.com:

Marta Balaga Finnish director Tiina Lymi decided to “go big” for “Stormskerry Maja,” set in the 19th century. Based on a series of books by Anni Blomqvist, it has been selected for International Film Festival Rotterdam and Goteborg. “It had to be done this way.

It’s about life and death, love, sorrow and lust. Big emotions. I really respect my producers’ decision to commit to this budget. €4 million is nothing in the U.S., but it’s a lot in Finland.” In the film – produced by Markus Selin, Jukka Helle and Hanna Virolainen for Solar Films and sold by Picture Tree Intl. – a young peasant woman, married off to a man she barely knows, moves to a remote island.

Her new environment isn’t exactly welcoming, but Maja falls for it quickly – and for her new husband Janne. Lymi shot the film on Åland Islands. “It’s a crazy place in the middle of the Baltic Sea.

You bring an actor to do one scene and it takes three days. It’s expensive, slow and it has given me many gray hairs, but it really paid off visually,” she says. “I wanted to make an epic film, so I just surrendered to it.” Just like her characters, played by Amanda Jansson and Linus Troedsson, who go from strangers to an affectionate couple, patiently exploring intimacy. “If you have two people who love each other, I am sure there’s laughter and pleasure.