Nina Knag is our muse. For her mind. For her tenderness. For her courage. For the way she keeps searching for the light and invites the rest of us to come with her. Her debut film Se Meg has received incredible reviews, opened this year’s BIFF, and brought Pia Tjelta the Best Actress award at Karlovy Vary. Now in cinemas.
Style: Harmony Lace
Some people arrive in a room and everything changes a little. The air gets calmer. The conversation gets deeper. Everyone sits up straighter without knowing why. Nina Knag is that sort of presence. Brilliant and brave in the quiet way. Entirely herself. She carries openness like strength, listens so you feel seen, and moves through the world with rare clarity and softness.
Nina tells stories that are honest. Not polished to be pretty, but true. Her work leans into the part of life that most of us try to hide. She is not afraid of it. She wants to look at it. She wants to hold it up to the light and ask what it means. She believes that film is about all of us together. The shared heartbeat. The bigger we.
Style: Molly Mini Roses
Getting to know Nina through the work on Se Meg has felt like being let into a private language. Trust, work, friendship, all happening at once. She makes people around her better. Kinder. Braver. She has that effect.
Style: Brown Velvet Suit (Coming Soon)
What is it that makes you want to tell stories through film?
For me, film is a way of understanding people and of getting closer to emotions that are hard to put into words. I’m drawn to the spaces between us, to moments filled with love, shame, confusion or longing. Film gives me a language for that.
When I make a film, I’m searching for connection, that moment when someone in the audience feels seen, or dares to feel something they’ve been afraid of. That’s the magic of cinema to me. It’s very personal, but also collective, a way of saying we’re not alone in this.
I’m also driven by a need to give a voice to those who are often unheard. Through my films I try to look at the social and political structures that shape us, the borders between people, the imbalance of power, the injustices we live with.
The best films stay with me long after the lights come on. They change how I see the world, or myself. That’s what I hope to give back.
Style: Elliot Blouse
Style: Ava Agnes
Who is your muse, Nina?
I’m inspired by people who dare to be honest, who show who they are, even when it’s uncomfortable. Often my muse is the actor I’m working with, and the trust that grows between us. On Se Meg / Don’t call me mama, Pia Tjelta inspired me deeply, she brought so much truth and courage to the work.
I also find inspiration in the people around me. My daughter Kaia, who’s three, reminds me every day to stay curious and playful, to see things as if for the first time. And my mother, who was politically active and a strong feminist, taught me to stand up for what I believe in and to follow my dreams, no matter how unlikely they seemed.
In the end, my muse is the mix of all that. The people who shape me, and the parts of life that keep teaching me something new.
