One of the many fantastic films to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was director Hanna Bergholm’s Finnish coming-of-age film, Hatching. If you haven’t seen the trailer, Hatching is about a young gymnast (Siiri Solalinna) that is always trying to please her image-obsessed mother, and what happens when she finds a mysterious egg in the woods. Spoiler alert: the egg hatches and what emerges becomes both her closest friend and a living nightmare. Hatching was written by Ilja Rautsi and also stars Jani Volanen, Saija Lentonen, and Sophia Heikkilä.

Shortly after seeing the film, I spoke with Hanna Bergholm, Siiri Solalinna, and Sophia Heikkilä. They shared some great stories about making the film, how Bergholm used Google to find the best animatronic designer in the world (which led to her hiring Gustav Hoegen and his team known for films like Star Wars and Jurassic World), how the film is unlike anything you’ve seen before, the way Hatching talks about people’s unhealthy relationship with social media, filming the 3rd act with the special effects and blood, the positive reviews, auditioning over 1,200 girls to find Solalinna, and a lot more.

Hatching movie image Siiri Solalinna
Image via Sundance

RELATED: ‘Hatching’ Review: Finnish Creature Feature Revels in the Horrors of Girlhood and Cracking Under Eggpectations | Sundance 2022

Watch what Hanna Bergholm, Siiri Solalinna, and Sophia Heikkilä had to say in the player above and below is a list of everything we talked about and the official syniopsis.

Hanna Bergholm, Siiri Solalinna, and Sophia Heikkilä

  • What does it mean to them to have such positive reviews?
  • Bergholm on how she has been describing the film to people.
  • What has it been like waiting for the film to come out since they filmed it over a year ago?
  • How the film is unlike anything people have seen.
  • Where did the idea for the story come from?
  • Solalinna reveals what she wishes she knew on the first day of filming.
  • Bergholm on auditioning over 1,200 girls for the role and how she decided on Solalinna.
  • What was it like for the actors reading the script fore the first time?
  • How the film talks about people’s unhealthy relationship with social media.
  • Bergholm talks about how she designed the creature and why she wanted to use an animatronic creature for some of the scenes.
  • How she used Google to find the best animatronic designer in the world.
  • What was the toughest stuff to do with the time and budget they had?
  • How Hatching is the most expensive film directed by a woman in Finalnd.
  • Did Solalinna ever ask to leave set while wearing the makeup?
  • Bergholm on the editing process and why she likes to have her editor do their own version first.
  • What was it like filming the 3rd act of the film with the special effects and blood?
  • Why Bergholm didn’t show any newspapers or the outside world in the film.
  • What do they think people would be surprised to learn about the making of Hatching?
hatching-still
Image via IFC Films

Here’s the official Hatching synopsis:

In Hatching, 12-year-old gymnast, Tinja is desperate to please her image-obsessed mother, whose popular blog ‘Lovely Everyday Life’ presents their family’s idyllic existence as manicured suburban perfection. One day, after finding a wounded bird in the woods, Tinja brings its strange egg home, nestles it in her bed, and nurtures it until it hatches. The creature that emerges becomes her closest friend and a living nightmare, plunging Tinja beneath the impeccable veneer into a twisted reality that her mother refuses to see. Hatching is a fascinating portrait of the nature of maternal instinct, as Tinja battles to come to terms with the genuine emotional bond with her grotesque and bloodthirsty newfound family while contending with the fraying connection to her own demanding mother.