A tender coming-of-age story, Little Wing centres on the resourceful Varpu as she struggles between fitting in with her friends and her family. The feature debut of Selma Vilhunen, an Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, Vilhunen based part of the story on her own longing for a relationship with her father, who passed away from mental illness.
Sensitively played by Linnea Skog, Varpu is a young girl navigating the transition into adolescence while living with her emotionally immature mother. Vapru is burdened with being the stronger member of the family, and is in many ways wiser than her mother. Her increasing desire for answers about the world pushes her to look for answers beyond her small apartment. Her first instinct is to look for her estranged father, whom she has no memory of. Despite this, she hopes it might illuminate something about herself if she can only track him down. She teaches herself to drive, and then sets off on a road trip to find her dad.