Oskar Östergren Njajta and Victor Lindgren will join us to present their ongoing project Saajve, an animated adventure film for the whole family that is also being developed as a video game. Inspired by Sami folklore, mythical beings, and a close everyday connection to nature, the film is produced by Bautafilm AB and written and directed by Oskar Östergren Njajta, with a planned theatrical release in autumn 2027.
The story takes place in Sápmi, where the forest meets the mountains in an undefined time. Siblings Bräjta and Aanta are tasked with returning a sacred wooden figure to the magical parallel world of Saajve in order to stop the evil giant Staaloe from destroying all the knowledge in the world.
The game version of Saajve is a 2D adventure game for children aged 5–10, based on the same story and Sami mythological world as the film. The game is being developed by Bautafilm together with the Swedish studio Turborilla (Mad Skills Motocross, with more than 200 million downloads) in Umeå and the Norwegian studio Rain Games (Teslagrad, World to the West) in Bergen, with a planned release alongside the film’s theatrical premiere in autumn 2027.
During the evening, Victor will present exclusive work-in-progress material from the game’s development process, offering insights into how the world of the film is being translated into an interactive gaming experience.
Oskar Östergren Njajta was one of the screenwriters behind the 2024 Christmas calendar series Snödrömmar. He is the director of the cultural centre Aejlies in Tärnaby and also works with Bautafilm in Umeå. Earlier this year, he received the ANNA Award for his work on Saajve. The ANNA Award was established by Women in Film and Television Sweden with support from the Sami Film Institute and the Swedish Film Institute.
Victor Lindgren is a director, screenwriter, Creative Director, and one of the founders of Bautafilm AB. His feature film debut For the Sake of Vicious Dreams (Till drömmarnas land) won the Angelos Award at the Gothenburg Film Festival in 2019 and Best European Film at the Zlín Film Festival. His short films have been screened at numerous international film festivals, including the Berlinale. In recent years, he has worked closely with several Sami productions—directing the interval video featuring Indigenous Basterds for Sápmi Grand Prix (SVT/NRK/YLE), serving as reality director for Christmas Miracle in Sápmi (Julmiraklet i Sápmi, SVT), and working as editor and creative advisor on Saajve.
The evening will be moderated by Clara Gustavsson.
