Horribly bad direction by Mr Grönros. Is he a joke or what? No sense for timing, storytelling and psychology. Even if this film was meant for dumb kids, or is that the problem? Maybe Mr Grönros thinks kids are stupid in general? The logic of this film is questionable at the least. I can't even bare to watch the whole film. It`s actually playing now on the TV. I get so mad. The film is obviously an expensive one and the cinematography is good. The cast is some of the best actors available in Scandinavia. (Stellan Skarsgård, Pernilla August etc) How that happened is amazing! I think that the problem of this project, apart from the director, is that he himself (more or less) has made an adaption of the Maria Gripe book. Indeed it's a fairy tale, but that doesn't mean one can throw away logic or have completely meaningless scenes in the film. Ever heard of dramatic storytelling? As in moving the plot along? The special effects with the birds are ridiculously badly done in a film like this from -98. Again, how the hell could Mr Grönros approve? The final scene is also a display of bad filmmaking. A scene that could have been powerful goes limp due to very bad choices in editing/ direction. (Just read that Leon Flamholc is the editor so there you go - Mr Quality stirkes again) And again logic is forgotten. Memory loss anyone? Now I feel a little bit bad for Mr. Grönros as he sure as hell will read this. (IMDB is BIG) But the guy needs some critisism after spending all that money in this Swedish/ Danish/ Norweigian co-production. Shame on you! This must be one film danish co-producer Peter Albeck-Jensen regrets ever getting involved with.