Twelve years ago, his sarcastic thriller In Order of Disappearance made Hans Petter Moland an internationally known representative of Nordic noir. For his epic entrance into the San Sebastián Film Festival’s main competition, Growth of the Soil, he adapted Knut Hamsun’s Nobel Prize-winning novel of the same title into a monumental drama of humans’ struggle with nature and love. On the day of the premiere screening, the Norwegian director found time for a conversation with Lidanoir about bringing an eternal piece of Norwegian literature to the screen, shooting in the harsh landscape, and giving the allegorical story a modern veneer.