A red-haired girl with unruly braids makes her way through her small village on a white horse. With her monkey on her shoulder and her heart on her sleeve, the world holds its breath. Pippi Longstocking became an open rebellion against boredom, rules, and order. But behind the girl was a young woman who had long remained invisible.

Astrid Lindgren, long before her great success, kept wartime diaries between 1939 and 1945, hidden in a wardrobe for seventy years. They are the testimony of a woman who observed the horrors of the world. Wilfried Hauke’s documentary opens this intimate archive. Between fear, humor, and self-doubt, a portrait emerges of a woman who finds strength through writing, using it to understand herself and the world. The voices of her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson briefly bring her memories back to life.

We see Astrid in Stockholm, navigating everyday life and the constant hum of the world crisis. Her observations of the war, her concern for her family, and the political news weigh on her life and that of her child. Yet despite the relentless situation, she never lost her humor or her ability to breathe life even into the deepest darkness, whether through Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga, or Ronja the Robber’s Daughter.

Every sentence Astrid Lindgren wrote is an act of resistance against fear, indifference, and the tyrannies of everyday life. You can feel the unstoppable force of a woman who shaped stories from despair to understand the world a little better and to remind us how important it is to be ahead of one’s time.