A dark fairy tale and the acclaimed acting debut of singer Björk.

The Juniper Tree is a hidden gem of European arthouse cinema and marked the breakthrough of the late, gone-too-soon director Nietzchka Keene.

An overlooked talent during her lifetime, director, professor, and Fulbright scholar Nietzchka Keene made a striking debut with The Juniper Tree, a stark and poetic feature loosely based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale. The film stars Björk in her first on-screen role and premiered to critical acclaim at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival.
It paved the way for Keene’s later work, including Heroine of Hell (1996) and Barefoot to Jerusalem (2008), the latter completed after her untimely death in 2004.

Set in medieval Iceland, The Juniper Tree follows Margit (a magnetic Björk) and her older sister Katla as they flee after their mother is executed for witchcraft. They find refuge with a widower and his troubled young son, but tension mounts as Katla’s powers begin to surface. Shot entirely on location in Iceland’s breathtaking landscapes and captured in haunting black-and-white by Randy Sellars, the film evokes the spiritual intensity of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Day of Wrath and Bergman’s The Virgin Spring. With dreamlike interludes by experimental filmmaker Pat O’Neill, it stands as a powerful allegory of misogyny and its consequences — a long-overdue rediscovery for arthouse audiences.

Midori Hirano has composed a new live soundtrack for this remarkable film, blending raw synthesizer textures with minimalistic piano to highlight both the fragility and intensity of the human nature portrayed in the story.

Performed live, the score creates an immersive sonic layer that deepens the emotional and atmospheric impact of the film.

This work was originally commissioned by Kunstencentrum Viernulvier and Film Fest Gent for Videodroom in 2025.

This live soundtrack project is available for performance in collaboration with Viernulvier and Arbelos Film.

If you're interested in bookings, please contact me with detailed information at:
info (at) midorihirano.com

Photos taken by Thierry Van Dort at Videodroom, 2025