The second William Shakespeare adaption by director Veli-Matti Saikkonen. The first was a theatre play "Macbeth", which premiered in March 20, 1980 at the Swedish Theatre (Swedish: Svenska Teatern) in Helsinki, Finland.
Actor Katariina Kaitue did the film during her parental leave from the Finnish National Theatre (Finnish: Suomen Kansallisteatteri). Her next play at the time was "The Tempest" (Finnish: Myrsky), also from William Shakespeare.
The basis of the script is the newer Finnish translation "Juhannusyön uni" by Matti Rossi. More than half of the original story was left out.
A year before the production, director Veli-Matti Saikkonen and actor Vesa-Matti Loiri saw the character Puk as an aging clown. It was later decided that Puk should be more of a mysterious, shamanistic character.