THE WILD SWANS is one of Hans Christian Andersen’s popular fairy tales. In this modern adaptation of the gripping story, the characters are elevated into an imaginary world, with an extraordinary Production Design created by Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark.

The story of a little Princess who is sent away from her beloved brothers by their father’s new Queen, who transforms the brothers into swans. When the Princess returns as an adult, her father is unable to recognize her, and she is hounded out of the kingdom. With the help of an old woman, the fairy Fata Morgana, she tracks down her brothers. They are now swans by day, and human beings by night. The Princess vows to do everything in her power to save her brothers. Fata Morgana shows her how she must weave eleven coarse shirts from flax made of stinging nettles, in order that her brothers may regain human form. Until the task is accomplished, she must not speak a word.

One night, while she is picking stinging nettles in the churchyard, she is being watched. People believe she is a witch and condemn her to be burned at the stake, but despite this, she manages to finish making the nettle shirts, so that the eleven swans can once more become Princes. Now, she is free to speak and declares her innocence.

Original title: De vilde svaner
A JJ Film Production 60 mins.
Produced by Jacob Jørgensen
Directed by Peter Flinth & Ghita Nørby
Screenplay by
Cinematography by Torben Forsberg
Production Design & Costumes: Queen Margrethe 2 of Denmark
Edited by My Thordal & Cathrine Ambus
Music by Svenn Skipper

Cast: Stine …, Mads M. Nielsen, Ghita Nørby, Søren Sætter-Lassen, Thure Lindhardt, Jens Jørn Spottag & Benedicte Hansen.