Ronja Rövardotter (Swedish)

"On the night the robber chieftain Matti's daughter Ronja is born, a terrible storm sweeps over Mattisskogen. It is so nasty that only the cruel Wild Whites can stay outside. The lightning crosses the pitch-black sky - and suddenly the thunder strikes and splits the mighty Mattisborgen in two.Despite her dramatic arrival, Ronja grows up to be a rather peaceful little robber girl. But she is brave and when she is old enough she is sent out into Mattisskogen to learn about all the dangers that lurk there. Here there are weeping dwarfs and goblins, the dangerous river and the terrible Devil's Gap. But the biggest danger is not even known to Mattis - in the forest there is also Birk, son of Mattis's archenemy Borka... And Mattis who thought that the Borka family was about to die out! It doesn't get any better if Borka and his band of robbers settled in the part of Mattisborgen that is on the other side of the Devil's Gap. The old feud flares up again, but to the chagrin of both chiefs, the children refuse to participate. Instead, they become best friends and when it is discovered, it becomes impossible to stay in the castle.Ronja and Birk choose to go out into Mattisskogen, where they live in an old bear cave and live on what nature provides. It's still summer, but what will happen when winter comes? And how will Mattis survive the grief of having lost his beloved Ronja? Maybe in the end he has to follow the wise Skalle-Per's advice: to reconcile with Borka. Mattis is torn between his longing for Ronja and his hatred of the Borka family. And Ronja, she has inherited her father's stubbornness and does not give in to anything.Work on a Ronja film began in 1982 and, as usual, it was Olle Hellbom who was given the responsibility to film the book. He used the spring to get funding, find collaborators and look for a good primeval forest as a recording location. But Olle Hellbom, who suffered from cancer, suddenly passed away in June of that year.It was not obvious who would take over as director, but Tage Danielsson got the offer. Tage and Astrid Lindgren had gotten to know each other at Radiotjänst in the 50s, when Tage was entertainment manager and Astrid participated in the program Tjugo frår. He had also appeared in the film Skrållan, Ruskprick and Knorrhane. Astrid and Tage often met during the preparations and he always had a lot of questions for her, for example "How big is a butt pixie really?".The work to find a suitable forest without power lines or the like continued via car, airplane, helicopter and hot air balloon and was finally found in a nature reserve in Dalsland. Hanna Zetterberg applied for the role of Ronja and her integrity and eyes immediately made a big impression. Finding Birk was more difficult, but one of Tage's assistants found Dan Håfström playing on a playground and asked him to apply for the role. Börje Ahlstedt applied for the role of Mattis and claimed that he could indeed ride, although he had never actually sat on a horse. He had to go to riding camp for two weeks together with a lot of little girls. Shooting scenes with horses was generally difficult because the horses were so afraid of the "clap" that was joined when each shoot started.Much in the Ronja film is solved via trick film in different ways. The elves are ordinary masked actors but with four times too many props; skis, poles and boots, so they look smaller. The Ghouls were played by a bunch of preschoolers with flashlights and the Hell Gap is in reality only 2.5 meters deep.The film about Ronja premiered on 14 Dec 1984 and was awarded a silver bear in Berlin in 1985. In October of the same year, Tage Danielsson tragically passed away, he suffered like Olle Hellbom from cancer."