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The 2002 coming-of-age drama The Little Big Girl marks Danish filmmaker Morten Kohlert's sophomore directorial effort, following his 1999 debut Fast Lane. While out and about tending to his herd, young shepherd Larus (Peter Jeppe Hansen) meets a mysterious little girl named Tinke (Sarah Juel Werner). Quickly realizing that the girl is alone, Larus brings Tinke some food and slowly builds a friendship with her. Tinke, whose parents died within the past year, has managed to survive by her own devices in the wild and has hence become quite feral. Larus convinces Tinke to come to his home so that his parents can take care of her and she concedes -- only to find that Larus' parents are strict disciplinarians who are quite unexcited with the notion of caring for another child. This hostility makes way for a bit of profiteering when Larus' father learns that Tinke may be descended from a wealthy family -- a secret Tinke learned from her dying mother, who bestowed a precious necklace on the little girl that will prove her ancestry. As her blood family and her foster family both work toward their own self-serving goals, Tinke begins to find the means for crafting her own destiny.