# She built a tin box to change one word.

- Series: [Miu Animations](https://miu.fm/miuanimations.md)
- Published: 2026-10-20
- Page: https://miu.fm/miuanimations/she-built-a-tin-box-to-change-one-word

## Story

She built a tin box to change one word.

Between 1939 and 1945 Finland sent about 70,000 to 80,000 children away from the war, most of them to Sweden, with name tags tied round their necks. Many stayed for years and came home speaking only Swedish. As early as 1943 the committee that moved them heard from parents astonished that their children had completely forgotten Finnish. This short tells it as a fable of tin hares built from those records: a young hare with a tag round her neck, a winter-white coat that turns brown in the new country, and the one word she could not say to her mother. It is told the way Bear Story (Historia de un oso, 2014) tells its story: by a machine the teller built with her own hands.

Is there a word from your first language that you lost?

Sources: Heikki Salminen, Lappu kaulassa yli Pohjanlahden, a history of the Finnish war children (Institute of Migration, Turku, 2007); the Swedish National Archives on the Finnish war children; Gabriel Osorio on the making of Historia de un oso.

Film and music: ours, an homage made independently of the makers of Historia de un oso. Sounds: recordings by Ali_6868, coalcon, craigsmith, PimFeijen, MathewHenry, kyles, Joseph Sardin, Sadiquecat, qubodup, chonkdonk, DenisChardonnet, j1987, Kinoton, rsellick and nvmbky (CC0) on Freesound and BigSoundBank. Instrument samples: Apple GarageBand. Cello recordings: University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios.

## Watch

- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/C7rvw_Zr5bg
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeuU40tDmeg/

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