TOM OF FINLAND (DVD)

Stars: Pekka Strang, Seumas F. Sargent, Chris Myland

TOM OF FINLAND is the beautiful and exhilarating true story of Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen and his journey to international success.

In the film, Touko returns home after serving his country in World War II. But post-war Finland is a bleak and moralistic place where homosexuality is illegal, so Touko has to be furtive about his sexual encounters. To amuse himself and his friends, Touko starts to draw muscular, uninhibited and proud gay men, but these drawings have to be kept secret – even his sister Kaija doesn’t know about them. For a while, Touko leads a regular life working in an advertisement agency, and falls in love with a dancer, Veli Mäkinen. But his drawings soon lead Touko to Berlin and from there to Los Angeles, where his art reaches a wide audience. His work, always with his ’Tom of Finland’ signature, becomes widely symbolic and fans the flames of the gay movement. Tom of Finland’s art is timeless and world famous.

They called it filth, it became a revolution.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

This 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 amongst other themes. Touko Laaksonen truly lived an incredible life worth sharing with the world.

Also available On-Demand on PeccadilloPOD