Despite their differences, all of the shorts and features I have written have had women as protagonists. And simply thinking about what I love about The Saga of Gösta Berling kept bringing me back to the story of a strong woman cast out of society for loving and never forgetting the wrong man. By introducing a kind of a role reversal, I wrote a story of the kind I love very personally, of redemption, revenge and horrible psychological and physical violence.
The Saga of Gösta Berling became a western set in a non-specific time and place. A wide, snowy landscape, with frozen lakes and dense forests roaming with packs of wolves. Distant fires glistening in the bloodied snow.
One of my favorite films being Aliens, I kept imagining Margareta as an Ellen Ripley-like character, strong and determined, but not without moments of doubt, anger, fear and desperation. And still, with an underlying kindness which is, after all, a fatal flaw in a harsh world like this. During the course of the story, she undertakes a difficult journey to take back her home, but more importantly, save the only person she cares about: her daughter.
On the other side is Berling, an expert manipulator, sweet-talker and narcissist, who – during the course of the film – degrades more and more into a force of nature, a jaded and rejected man with a grudge of his own, only for being rejected by Margareta.
The Saga of Margareta is an epic tale of love, revenge and redemption. Violent and emotional, and as harsh as a nothern European winter.