When a climate crisis strikes her beloved forest, artist Maria Westerberg must reinvent both her art and herself.
As a child, Maria struggled to fit into a conventional life. But the forest—with its gnarled twigs and quiet strength—offered her a path to healing and purpose. Now known as Sweden’s “twig poet,” she transforms nature’s remnants into powerful sculptures and poetry.
This intimate short film follows Maria’s emotional journey as she confronts ecological loss, rewilds her creative process, and deepens her bond with the land that once saved her.
🌿 A story of healing, resistance, and wild inspiration.
🎥 Directed by Mattias Olsson of Campfire Stories.
#Rewilding #ForestArt #ClimateGrief #NatureHealing #MariaWesterberg #ShortDocumentary
This film is part of a series called "Something Beautiful for the World”, which is a collaboration between Reflections of Life, Campfire Stories and Happen Films. Watch all the films of the series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLye1JIzaiQ6rKe40SkcSWqoC_sn4v_vIY
Title: Once Upon a Forest
Created by: Campfire Stories
Filmed in: Värmland, Sweden
Featuring: Maria "Vildhjärta" Westerberg & Johannes Söderqvist (https://vildhjarta.net/) and Martin Jentzen (https://www.jentzen.se/)
Produced, filmed and edited by: Mattias Olsson for Campfire Stories (https://www.campfire-stories.org/)
Sound mix: Boris Laible (https://www.borislaible.com/)
The films of the series "Something Beautiful for the World" explore how small acts of love and kindness have the potential to ripple out and change the world, touching hearts and minds in ways that we could never begin to imagine. We'll be sharing a total of 12 short films, from across five continents - releasing one per month for the whole year of 2024 - four from each filmmaker.
More info about the three production companies below:
Campfire Stories
Follow us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@campfire-stories
Visit our website: https://www.campfire-stories.org
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mattiasolsson
Reflections of Life
Follow us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ReflectionsofLife
Visit our website: https://reflectionsof.life/
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/reflectionsoflife
Happen Films
Follow us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@happenfilms
Visit our website: https://happenfilms.com/
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/happenfilms
A huge thank you to the following brilliant people, who gave so generously of their to time to help with translations, enabling us to provide subtitles for this film, in the following languages:
Bulgarian: Polina Stoyanova
Chinese: Xinyi Li
Dutch: Karla Greven
Croatian:Davor Bobanac
(English: Mattias Olsson)
French: Amélie Macoin
German: Tanja Pütz
Greek: Antonia Koutsogiannaki
Hungarian: Peter Laszlo
Indonesian: Ary Nuansa
Italian: Grazia Gironella
Polish: Anna Konieczna
Portuguese: Sibylle Steinpass
Slovakian: Zuzana Beračova
Slovenian: Jasmina Kovačič
Spanish: Patricia Aguirre
(Swedish: Mattias Olsson)