Selma Vilhunen’s latest works as a director include the documentary “Hobbyhorse Revolution,” which premiered at the Tampere Film Festival and won the main prize in domestic competition as well as the Risto Jarva main prize. Her fiction feature debut, “Little Wing,” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Golden Camera Taodue Award at the Rome Film Fest in 2016. Previously, she directed the short “Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?” which received an Oscar nomination in 2014, as well as the documentaries “Song” and “Pony Girls.”

“Stupid Young Heart” will begin screening at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

SV: “Stupid Young Heart” is a love story between two teenagers. Lenni and Kiira are in a demanding situation, as Kiira is unexpectedly pregnant with Lenni’s child. Lenni, who has always lived without a father, is determined to become a strong and responsible man. The only adult to give him any attention and guidance is his neighbor Janne, a local right-wing activist. In his yearning for acceptance and belonging, Lenni becomes willing to do almost anything to please Janne and his gang.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

SV: I admired the way writer Kirsikka Saari connected the story of the individual with today’s social issues on a larger scale. Through Lenni and Kiira’s love story, we are able to explore the hopes and fears of their entire community, as people who are afraid of their futures project their frustrations onto those even less fortunate than themselves: immigrants.

What I also like in Saari’s writing is how she is able to view all of her characters at eye level. Her characters are three-dimensional and ambiguous, just like in real life.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

SV: I hope that they can have a little more space in their hearts and minds for being understanding of other people’s struggles. I hope that they can feel more connected to people who are seemingly different and that they become a little more merciful and nurturing.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

SV: It was quite a challenge to get the casting and all necessary preparations complete on a relatively tight schedule. This film has many sequences that required a lot of actors and specific expertise, such as performing a C-section.

As a director, scenes that included working with amateur actors who were improvising in the Somali language while taking part in choreographed fights proved the most challenging.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

SV: “Stupid Young Heart” is a co-production between Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands, and the financing is a combination of support from each country’s film institutes, together with funds from Eurimages, Creative Europe Media, Nordic Film and TV fund, TV channel YLE, and an investment by the Nordic distributor Nordisk Film.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

SV: For as long as I could remember, I have had an intuitive understanding of the moving image. It was almost like my second native tongue. When my high school in Helsinki started a video club, it really pushed me toward becoming a filmmaker. Ever since I was 19, I didn’t really have any other career plan besides making films.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

SV: The worst advice was that someone said I wasn’t the type of person who could be a film director, that I was somehow too shy or sensitive. I am glad and proud for not having believed that advice.

I have received a lot of good advice over the years. The Russian director Sergey Dvortsevoy once talked about finding your own frame, as that is where everything begins. Each filmmaker needs to define their own frame and find it in the world.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

SV: Consider yourselves human beings telling stories about other human beings. Support other female directors every step of the way — root for their work online, at the box office, during festivals, as members of juries and panels. Demand equal pay, equal budgets, and equal marketing budgets as those films that are made by or about men.

Pay attention to representation in every organization and institution that has power over whose stories are being told and determining what will become a part of the film canon. Demand that statements of equality and inclusion be written and followed.

Don’t be afraid of being a “feminist killjoy.” Allow yourself to feel good at work. Surround yourself with people who know how to respect other people and are capable of learning new things by questioning their own beliefs.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

SV: I have a new favorite: “Amateurs” by Gabriela Pichler. The film has so many layers — as it addresses the effects of globalization, it also becomes a study and a celebration of the film medium itself. Pichler’s filmmaking is free and seemingly effortless, and it seems like she can do anything she desires with the camera and her actors. Such energy and precision of expression are hard to find.

W&H: Hollywood and the global film industry are in the midst of undergoing a major transformation. What differences have you noticed since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

SV: I was happy to discover that many production companies in Finland, including my own company Tuffi Films, have created their own equality and inclusion programs, which they share with their employees and the public. It looks like women have found ways to create even tighter networks for fighting discrimination together. #MeToo has given people something quite concrete: words to address a violent or unfair situation, as well as a community for support.

[After The New York Times exposé on Harvey Weinstein in October of 2017], it became uncool to be chauvinistic, and it was about time. The next step is to become equal in representation, money, and power. We need women onscreen to be normalized, not an exception. We need to see women as people, not only as “strong women” or a smattering of diversity in a male environment, but as everything that people are: weak, strong, mean, kind, crazy, weird, challenging, and infinite combinations of these characteristics.