The film features a brilliant, understated performance by Pekka Strang, who portrays Touko with a perfect balance of quiet vulnerability and fierce determination. The cinematography by Lasse Frank masterfully transitions from the claustrophobic, shadow-drenched noir aesthetic of post-war Finland to the bright, expansive freedom of the American West.
The light is not the soft, nostalgic glow of the 1950s Helsinki streetlamp. It is the cold, blue-white scan of an iPhone X screen in a dark room. The man on the bed is not a dockworker from the harbor or a biker from the original LA chapter. He is a digital native. He is 28. His body—sculpted by CrossFit, maintained by plant-based protein, and mapped by a Fitbit—is a conscious architecture.
Debuted at the Gothenburg Film Festival on January 27, 2017, followed by a theatrical release in Finland on February 24, 2017
Touko must hide his true identity from his sister, Kaija, with whom he shares an apartment, representing the suffocating domestic conformity of the era. tom of finland -2017-
The narrative begins during World War II, establishing the psychological roots of Laaksonen’s artistic vision. Serving as an officer in the Finnish military, Touko experiences the visceral trauma of wartime combat, including a haunting encounter where he kills a Soviet parachutist. Paradoxically, the strict lines, heavy leather coats, and raw authority of military uniforms spark a complex psychological and erotic fascination within his creative psyche.
Pekka Strang as Touko Laaksonen, Lauri Tilkanen as Veli, and Jessica Grabowsky as Kaija. Biography / Drama. Release Date:
In conclusion, 2017 was not the year Tom of Finland was discovered , but the year he was canonized . The major exhibition in Tokyo, the controversial postage stamps in Helsinki, and the biopic on screens worldwide collectively dismantled the last barriers between “pornography” and “art,” between “subculture” and “nation,” between “shame” and “pride.” Looking back, 2017 stands as the moment when Touko Laaksonen’s leather-clad dreamers finally stepped off the secret sketchbook page and into the official history of art, proving that even the most forbidden images, seeded quietly over decades, can one day become part of a nation’s—and the world’s—cultural heritage. The film features a brilliant, understated performance by
The movie tracks his transition from working with pencil to using pastel as his hands began to shake due to illness, ultimately showing his impact on global queer art. Tom of Finland (2017) Film Reception and Impact
Perhaps the most telling sign of Tom of Finland's mainstream penetration in 2017 was the proliferation of high-profile commercial and fashion collaborations. These products brought his iconic imagery into everyday life in new and unexpected ways.
in 1984 to archive and protect his work from being lost or pirated. It is the cold, blue-white scan of an
Simultaneously, a pair of companion exhibitions titled took over Berlin. At Salon Dahlmann, "Loves and Lives" presented personal letters, photographs, and late works from private collections to reveal the man behind the legend. At Galerie Judin, "Ecce Homo – The Preliminary Drawings" offered a rare and intimate look at Laaksonen's creative process through his expressive sketches and studies, some of which had never been seen publicly before.
As Tom of Finland himself once wrote, reflecting on his mission: "In those days, a gay man was made to feel nothing but shame about his feelings and his sexuality. I wanted my drawings to counteract that, to show gay men being happy and positive about who they were". The events of 2017 proved that, decades after his death, his drawings had finally achieved that goal on a global stage, securing his place not just in the smaller side rooms of the Louvre he humbly imagined, but in the permanent canon of art history.
Karukoski’s direction brilliantly captures the claustrophobia of this era. The first half of the film is shot in muted, shadow-drenched tones, reflecting a society where gay men had to communicate entirely through coded glances in public parks. From Helsinki Shadows to California Sunshine