 The film's origins were in a screenplay writing contest commissioned by Atelier Apollo, owned by photographer and engineer Karl Emil Ståhlberg, who is now regarded as the father of Finnish cinema.The contest was won by the pseudonym "J. V-s", who some speculated was actually Ståhlberg himself, but other sources say he was a local sheriff.The screenplay was adapted and the film was directed by a friend of Ståhlberg, the Swedish count and artist Louis Sparre.