It’s a dry summer on Öland in Sweden, and the young volunteer Jenny is trekking towards her final work duty. When she encounters a rugged animal caretaker in the middle of a barren landscape, her goodwill is put to the test.

Director’s Vision for ‘The Calf’

It was a train journey and a book that sparked the whole project. A sociology book about the human need for community. Tribe – On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger. I was hooked. There was a short story in the prologue that immediately painted clear pictures in my mind. A young journalism student is hiking outside his hometown of Seattle and meets a homeless man – dirty and repulsive – on a high ridge. Poverty had taken over the city. The homeless man asks the student if he has any food with him. The student lies – says he doesn’t have anything. He sure does. The homeless man then takes his instinctive responsibility and gives the student his last meal in pure generosity. It’s a long way back to the city, and of course, the student needs it. The journalism student realizes, there and then, the importance of belonging to the tribe and taking responsibility for each other. A story that describes the modern lack of helpfulness that exists in a time where individualism, vengeance, and the alone-is-strong mentality prevail.

So, I embraced the key foundations of the story and wrote a narrative that borders between authentic and biblical, where reality and mythology blend together. A small story about a modern – individualistic girl from Stockholm in her late- and seeking teens, finds herself in the absolute countryside – the southern Öland steppes…