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:    • Something Beautiful for the World  

Title: Once Upon a Forest
Created by: Campfire Stories

Synopsis: Maria was a romantic, animal-loving, dreamy child who, growing up, had a hard time conforming to the demands associated with the trajectory towards "a normal life". As a young adult she became depressed, and was encouraged by her therapist to go for walks in the forest. The myriad of funny-looking twigs and sticks she found along the way immediately put her on a path to recovery. Now, 25 years later, she's a celebrated "twig poet" whose art is shown in galleries throughout Sweden. When a climate related crisis strikes the forest where she lives and works, she's forced into a new type of creativity in order to save the place that once upon a time saved her.

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:    / @campfire-stories  
Visit our website: https://www.campfire-stories.org
Support us on Patreon:   / mattiasolsson  

Reflections of Life
Follow us on Youtube:    / @reflectionsoflife  
Visit our website: https://reflectionsof.life/
Support us on Patreon:   / reflectionsoflife  

Happen Films
Follow us on Youtube:    / @happenfilms  
Visit our website: https://happenfilms.com/
Support us on Patreon:   / 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
Dutch: Karla Greven
English: Mattias Olsson
French: Amélie Macoin
German: Tanja Pütz
Indonesian: Ary Nuansa
Italian: Grazia Gironella
Polish: Anna Konieczna
Portuguese: Sibylle Steinpass
Slovakian: Zuzana Beračova
Slovenian: Jasmina Kovačič
Spanish: Patricia Aguirre
Swedish: Mattias Olsson