 She was recruited in 1924 by the Finnish director Mauritz Stiller to play a principal part in his film "The Saga of Gösta Berling", a dramatization of the famous novel by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf, which also featured the actor Lars Hanson.Stiller became her mentor, training her as a film actress and managing all aspects of her nascent career.She followed her role in "Gösta Berling" with a starring role in the German film "Die freudlose Gasse" ("Joyless Street" or "The Street of Sorrow", 1925), directed by G. W. Pabst and co-starring Asta Nielsen.