Shooting took almost eight years, providing a total of 20 hours of film footage: The directors spared no cost to capture the Finnish forest flora and fauna throughout all four seasons for the cinema screen. It was worth it: “The Tale of the Forest” proved to be a box office hit and the most successful Finnish documentary film of all times. Overwhelmingly beautiful images, inclusing close-ups and slow motion sequences, unveil the magic of the mostly untouched nature in northern Finland's primeval forests. Besides presenting its inhabitants - such as bears, moose, snakes, owls, lynxes, rare birds and flying squirrels - the film also introduces the mythological dimensions of their environments by reporting on the elves and nature sprites that supposedly used to live in these areas.