‘Tom of Finland’ is a film for ‘Trump times’

Director Dome Karukoski says his new movie — about a gay artist famous for homoerotic drawings of muscle men — is a film for “Trump times.”

“It’s going to be a rough four years, the world is going back to the Middle Ages,” the director said, according to Screen Daily. “What we hope to achieve with this film is to bring it into a mainstream audience. People might not care about Tom, or about gays, but it is so much easier for us to let people love and let people be who they are.”

Tom of Finland had its world premiere earlier this year at Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival, where it won the Fipresci Award from international critics.

+3 

The jury praised the “way the director and his team portray the life of such an iconic character, balancing a well done execution and story development, and taking us through the decades thanks to a clever use of music and production design.”

The film tells the story of a cultural icon in the gay community — Touko Laaksonen, a decorated officer who returns home after serving in World War II to find life in Finland is far from peaceful.

Postwar Helsinki is rampant with homophobic persecution, and men around him feel pressured to marry women and have children.

+3 

Touko takes refuge in his homoerotic art — his drawings of muscular men, free of inhabitations, often in the uniforms of the officers who oppressed him.

He eventually leaves Finland for Berlin and then Los Angeles, where he finds a wider audience for his art. His work — made famous by his signature “Tom of Finland” — becomes the emblem of a generation of men and, the filmmakers say, fans the flames of a gay revolution.

Karukoski says Tom of Finland “is the story of a man ahead of his time, bravely standing up against a world virulently against his right to be who he was — a homosexual man with homosexual fantasies. The story shows how literally one person can create change in the world, even with something as simple as an artist’s tools. This is the portrait of an honored artist for the big screen, as well as a love story among other themes. Touko Laaksonen truly lived an incredible life worth sharing with the world.”

The world premiere in Sweden was followed by a release in the European region, earning about $1 million at the box office.

The film’s North American premiere was at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in April, and already the movie is in demand for LGBTQ festivals across the United States.

+3 

“Touko Laaksonen dared to draw and … by doing so inspired an entire generation of LGBT people to also live and desire freely,” said Richard Lorber, CEO of Kino Lorber, which acquired North American rights to the film.

“Dome Karukoski’s film captures the man, as well as his milieu, in an incredibly cinematic and powerful way. So we’re very proud to be bringing Tom of Finland to North American audiences this year.”

Texting Pride

Earlier this year, the government of Finland marked the legalization of same-sex marriage by introducing a “Tom of Finland” emoji. The government says Tom of Finland, born Touko Laaksonen, “made, and continues to make, a significant contribution to the advancement of human rights, advocating for tolerance, respect and freedom.” Tom and other official emojis can be found at finland.fi/emoji.