“Not being loved as you are is horrifying”: Director Hannah Bergholm on Hatching

Hatching is the daring feature debut from Finnish director Hannah Bergholm and writer Ilja Rautsi, which takes as its central premise a wonderfully weird doppelgänger-type creature, Alli, that hatches into existence as a kind of metaphorical release for the pressures and frustrations 12-year-old gymnast Tinja struggles with, living up to the expectations of her control-freak mother.

Newcomer Siiri Solalinna is outstanding as the double-edged Tinja, while Sophia Heikkilä is utterly chilling as her Stepford wife-esque, social media-obsessed mum. Perpetually posting on her video blog Lovely Everyday Life, she is a sinister character who seems to confront the audience with the taboo idea that not all women are guaranteed to have wholesome maternal instincts. A distinctive visual language contrasts sunny, picture-perfect suburban family life with skin-crawling body horror imagery that oozes and disgusts – and under the skin this film will crawl. It’s a solid addition to a new wave of feminist horror that uses the medium in inventive ways to explore the female experience.

The Upcoming had the pleasure of speaking with Bergholm at the Sundance London Film Festival about where she got the initial idea for the strange, horror-infused family drama, the creativity and ingenuity that went into its more extreme visual elements, and how the surreal story is rooted in the very real anxieties faced by young women coming of age. 

Sarah Bradbury

Hatching is released in select cinemas on 16^th September 2022. Read our review here.

Watch the trailer for Hatching here: