Nightborn Filming Locations and Cast Details

Hanna Bergholm’s “Nightborn” takes a familiar dream and slowly turns it feral. Saga, a Finnish woman, returns with her British husband Jon to the isolated house where she grew up, hoping the move will give them enough space to start a family. After she gives birth, however, Saga becomes convinced that something is wrong with their baby, while everyone around her treats her fear as exhaustion or instability.

Written by Bergholm and Ilja Rautsi, the 92-minute psychological horror film mixes Finnish folklore, body horror and flashes of dark humor. It is Bergholm’s second feature after “Hatching” and her first primarily English-language film, with Seidi Haarla and Rupert Grint leading an international cast.

Where Was Nightborn Filmed?

Although the story unfolds in an unnamed Finnish woodland, “Nightborn” was filmed mostly in Lithuania. The production completed a 45-day shoot before principal photography wrapped in early December 2024. Bergholm marked the end of filming by mentioning a demanding schedule involving babies, animatronics, blood bags and unusually constructed trees.

Public production listings identify Lithuania as the filming country without revealing a particular town, forest, private residence or studio. One review from the film’s festival run similarly notes that the Finnish-set story was photographed on location in Lithuania.

Vilnius-based Filmai LT served as the Lithuanian co-producer, but that involvement should not be taken as confirmation that the film was shot within Vilnius itself. No official source has connected Saga’s house to a named Lithuanian village or estate. Until the filmmakers release a detailed location list, more specific online claims should be treated as unverified.

Lithuania as the Finnish Wilderness

The Lithuanian locations had a more complicated assignment than simply providing woodland scenery. On screen, the forest feels old, watchful and increasingly hostile. It gives Saga’s childhood home the impression that it has been waiting for her, even after the couple renovates the neglected property into an orderly family retreat.

The house and its nursery eventually become the film’s main visual trap. What initially looks like a fresh beginning starts to feel sealed off from the rest of the world as Saga’s certainty grows and Jon’s patience begins to thin.

Production designer Kari Kankaanpää, Lithuanian designer Grigorijus Zundelovičius and cinematographer Pietari Peltola helped create that contrast between pale domestic calm and the damp, unruly landscape surrounding the family.

Bergholm has explained that Finnish forest folklore influenced the movie’s invented mythology, colors and physical textures. Lithuania therefore had to support both sides of the story: an intimate drama about a struggling young family and a folk nightmare that appears capable of growing through the walls.

A Lithuanian Co-Production

“Nightborn” was mounted through a four-country partnership involving Finland’s Komeetta, Lithuania’s Filmai LT, France’s Getaway Films and the United Kingdom’s Bluelight Nightborn Limited. Lithuanian producer Artūras Dvinelis worked alongside Daniel Kuitunen, Noémie Devide, Christopher Granier-Deferre and Alain de la Mata.

Lithuania was not merely an economical substitute for Finland. A substantial local production and location crew helped stage a technically complicated shoot that combined woodland exteriors, carefully designed domestic interiors and practical creature effects.

Bergholm used real infants alongside an animatronic baby and a puppet. That approach allowed the cast to react to something physically present in the room instead of leaving the film’s unsettling centerpiece entirely to digital post-production.

Cast Details

Seidi Haarla leads the cast as Saga, a new mother whose alarm is repeatedly explained away by the people closest to her. Bergholm wrote the role with Haarla in mind after watching her acclaimed performance in “Compartment No. 6,” responding to the actor’s unusual combination of sensitivity, honesty and toughness.

Haarla keeps two possibilities alive at once. Saga may be recognizing a genuine supernatural threat, or she may be disappearing into fear following childbirth. That uncertainty stops “Nightborn” from becoming a straightforward creature feature. Even when the film enters stranger territory, the story remains grounded in the anger of a woman being told not to trust herself.

Rupert Grint portrays Jon, Saga’s British husband. The role continues Grint’s darker post-“Harry Potter” work after projects including “Servant” and “Knock at the Cabin,” although Jon is not introduced as an obvious antagonist.

He appears warm, practical and initially convincing as a partner willing to leave his old life behind for Saga. Their relationship deteriorates because Jon wants a rational explanation for what is happening, while Saga increasingly sees rationality as another method of dismissing her.

Bergholm has said Grint’s grounded, approachable quality made him believable as an outsider entering both a Finnish family and an isolated forest he does not completely understand.

Pamela Tola appears as Taru, while respected Finnish writer and performer Pirkko Saisio plays Saga’s mother. Rebecca Lacey and John Thomson portray Jon’s mother and father, widening the family pressure surrounding the couple.

The ensemble also includes Silvia Saloranta, Satu Tuuli Karhu, Amira Khalifa, Johanna Kuuva, Mari Rantasila, Helena Rängman and Klaara Höglund. Their presence gives the film a social world beyond the secluded house, which is important because Saga’s terror depends partly on how quickly other people accept a comforting explanation and move on.