Finnish biopic about the iconic gay artist Tom of Finland opens today in Finland and on March 3rd in Sweden. We spoke to director Dome Karukoski.

Was it your long-time collaborator Aleksi Bardy [writer/producer at Helsinki filmi] who contacted you with the project and what was your first reaction?

Dome Karukoski: Yes it was Aleksi’s idea. We were amazed that no film had been made about Tom of Finland [pseudonym used by Touko Laaksonen] . When he died in 1991, few people actually knew that he was Finnish as he was hiding his true identity. So as a teenager, I remember the shift among my friends, from curiosity about the artist who was drawing homoerotic art, to shame. Personally I had no problem, as I grew up in a liberal family, my mother being a journalist. 

How much research did you do?
DK:
We started the research process in 2012. Our most difficult task was to narrow and define the story. The Tom of Finland Foundation was graceful and opened their archives for us. We spoke to people who knew him; I read his letters and watched his photos. For a visual person like me, the most important was to see not only how he posed in his photographs, but how he shot the photographs. There is one photo in particular that struck me, with Tom and 10 guys from the army. Everyone is shy, but Tom is self-confident, flirting with the camera. That tells a lot about him at 20. Through research, I tried to find the soul and heart of the character.

You packed a lot in the film that spans almost half a century, from Tom of Finland’s years in the Finnish army, to post WW2 when he shared a flat with his sister, until his liberating LA life and final recognition of his artistic contribution to gay culture. Was that partly because you aimed at reaching a wider audience than the core LGBTQ audience?
DK:
Not at all. It was hard for us to know if the film was going to be a niche arthouse film or a crossover film like Brokeback Mountain. You have to be aware of the wishes of financiers, but our first goal was to decide what story we were going to tell. With biopics, you often try to find a landmark period in the person’s life, but here, his coming of age story as an artist spans for decades. In the 1940s, Tom [played by Pekka Strang] was drawing for himself, then his art became more political and mainstream. The film therefore became a lifelong story, but we did choose five segments of his life that were very important to him: war, post-war, his love affair with dancer Veli [Lauri Tilkanen], coming to America and AIDS.

There are the dark periods of post-war gay repression and AIDS, but the general feeling of the film is of joyfulness...
DK:
Absolutely. His art is filled with humour, some of it is taboo, some of it is a punch-line. We wanted the film to look like his art, with subtle humour. Then with the production designer Christian Olander and cinematographer Lasse Frank Johannessen, we decided to build a palette of colours to reflect Tom of Finland’s change and maturity as an artist, using first the grey of the uniforms during war time to bright  colours for his life in Los Angeles.

The film is also about fighting prejudice and bigotry, a recurrent theme in your filmography…
DK:
Yes. I often felt different and was bullied at school. I have always been interested in stories where the main character looks at the world from a different perspective and feels like an outsider. The life of an artist often resonates in his art. When you look at what’s happening in Europe and North America, you see how far right movements and populist governments use fear to influence people. Fear is always about the unknown and minorities suffer from it. When I speak to gay people in the US, they are afraid. We should never allow this. As a filmmaker, I’m proud to hopefully contribute to this enduring fight against bigotry.

How did you work with the main actor  Pekka Strang ?
DK:
He is an experienced theatre actor. He has a colour palette of his own so it’s easy for a director. He did a lot of research as well and visited the Tom of Finland Foundation. He was cast very early on, in May 2015. For a long time, we were talking about making Tom of Finland as a full English language film. But when we realised we could finance it with a Finnish actor in the main role, it made things easier and the film more authentic.

What’s next for you?
DK:
Tom of Finland was a heavy and long filmmaking process. Right now I am reading books and scripts and taking my time for my next move.

TO SEE THE TRAILER CLICK HERE Tom of Finland.