The separation is agonising for Astrid, and although she makes frequent visits, the toddler calls Marie “Mama” when he begins to speak. She flees to Copenhagen to give birth to her son, Lasse, in secrecy, and then bids a painful goodbye to him as she leaves him with a Danish foster mother, Marie. Meanwhile the parents’ land in the southern province of Smaland belongs to the Protestant church, leading them to fear they could be cast out if Astrid’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy comes to light. When she becomes pregnant, Blomberg insists he wants to marry her, but his wife refuses to give him a divorce and threatens to press adultery charges. Taken with her writing talent and independent streak, the editor, Blomberg, offers her a job but quickly falls in love with her and they begin a discreet affair. The movie, which drew enthusiastic applause and a lot of tears at a press preview, introduces Astrid as a teenager living on her family’s farm in a close-knit but judgemental tiny community. “I would not be the same person if I had not had Pippi,” she said. “(Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel) Kant also said this but Astrid Lindgren says these things in a very, very simple way that just enters you when you are a child.”įischer Christensen, 48, who called Lindgren “one of the most innovative and influential artists of our time”, said Lindgren and her characters set an example for generations of people. Only decades after she became a literary superstar and a national icon, in the 1970s, did Lindgren first tell the story Of her time, making her an early trailblazer for gender equality. But it also liberated her from many of the oppressive conventions “One of the things she might have learned from this is you have to think for yourself.Īstrid’s traumatic experience left its scars. “What happened here in this story made Astrid a really, really strong person,” Fischer Christensen said. The film examines the wrenching choices she was forced to make as a result, and the life lessons she drew. While still a teenager in conservative Sweden in the 1920s, the then Astrid Ericsson had an affair with her boss, the married editor-in-chief of the local newspaper, and fell pregnant. The film is based in part on a groundbreaking 2015 biography of Astrid Lindgren by Danish biographer and literary critic Jens Andersen. Astrid Lindgren is best known for her children’s books featuring the red-haired, superstrong girl Pippi Longstocking.(Wikimedia Commons)īecoming Astrid by Danish filmmaker Pernille Fischer Christensen exposes the little-known backstory behind one of the world’s most enduring girl characters, with her gravity-defying red plaits, abundant freckles and superhuman strength.

A dark secret long held by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren led her to create one of the most beloved heroines of children’s literature, Pippi Longstocking, according to a new biopic at the Berlin film festival.

Pippi longstocking by astrid lindgren