Tove, Finland’s submission for this year’s Best International Film Oscar, would make a good double feature with Professor Marston and the Wonder Women as biopics centering on the love lives of cartoonists in the 1940s and ’50s. Tove Jansson’s various romances don’t “explain” much about her beloved Moomins the same way William Moulton Marston’s romances directly connected to his creation of Wonder Woman, but this is nonetheless a compelling drama, whether or not you’re already a Moomin fan.
Zaida Bergroth’s film starts in 1944, in the dying days of World War II. Tove, played beautifully by Alma Pöysti, has already created many of her Moomin characters but has yet to do anything with them professionally. They’re just the doodles she makes between her serious work as a fine artist, and she’s living in the shadow of her father, the famous sculptor Viktor Jansson (Robert Enckell), who she can’t earn approval from.
In the freewheeling libertine party scene of the Finnish intelligentsia, Tove enters relationships with two different individuals: the socialist politician Atos Wirtanen (Shanti Roney) and the married theatre director Vivica Bandler (Krista Kosonen). Both partners help Tove transform her doodles into the art she’d become best known for, as Atos publishes the first Moomin comics in his paper while Vivica turns one of Tove’s books into a play.
Tove likes Atos well enough, but Vivica, the first woman she’s ever been with, is who truly ignites her passion. Though the details of this arrangement at least initially appear to be understood by all involved, drama nonetheless ensues. Tove ultimately can’t reciprocate Atos’ passion for her, while Vivica not only fails to fully reciprocate Tove’s love, but she also inflames jealousy by pursuing further affairs.
Tove will strike a chord with any artist who has struggled with high expectations and been shocked to find other people see more value in their work than they do themself. Viewers seeking historical queer stories that neither focus on homophobia nor fit the formula recently parodied in Saturday Night Live‘s “Lesbian Period Drama” sketch will also find this film refreshing.
Tove is streaming through April 18 at the Seattle International Film Festival, San Francisco Film Festival and Wicked Queer Boston LGBT Film Festival. Directed by Zaida Bergroth, the film stars Alma Pöysti, Krista Kosonen, Shanti Roney, Robert Enckell and Kajsa Ernst.
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