[2] The film is based on the life of the outlaw Gjest Baardsen, but it is a blend of fact and fiction.
The plot is taken from a chapbook published by Holger Sinding under the pseudonym Halle Sira.
Newspapers have written the following about the film: "Meet the master thief and the folk hero Gjest Baardsen, who steals from the rich and gives to the poor.
"[7] "Maurstad plays the folk hero with an obsessive freshness, with daring moves and a Hardanger fiddle, and escapes over fjords and mountains.
"[8] Alfred Maustad and an orchestra directed by Adolf Kristoffer Nielsen also recorded these two songs in Oslo on February 20, 1940.