The Finnish biopic about the Moomins creator Tove Jansson received strong reviews in the trade press following its Toronto industry launch.

The film will reach Finnish cinemagoers this Friday.

Bergroth’s 5th film Tove is the first ever feature film about the iconic Finnish writer/artist Tove Jansson whose Moomin books have been translated into over 50 languages.

Based on a screenplay by Eeva Putro, the film focuses on an untold period in Tove’s life, the formative years 1944 to 1956 where the fiercefully independent woman discovers her true-self on a private and professional standpoint. Tove is craving for recognition as a painter, but her artistic endeavours take an unexpected turn, when the Moomin universe and heart-warming characters that she initially created as a side project, start to take a life of their own, inspired by her own life experience. Tove is also eager to get approval from her father, the celebrated sculptor Viktor Jansson, but the latter shows disdain for her talent and rejects her bohemian life-style.

Meanwhile the free-spirited Tove who is in a relationship with left-wing politician and journalist Atos Wirtanen, suddenly falls madly in love with the married female stage director Vivica Bandler. The short-lived love affair - which inspired the Moomin characters Thingumy and Bob (Tofslan and Vifslan in Swedish) rocks Tove, but she gradually learns to free herself from her non-reciprocal passion for Vivica and to stand on her own feet.

In the title roles are Alma Pöysti who had previously played Tove Jansson on stage at Helsinki’s Svenska Teatern, Krista Kosonen (Beforeigners, Miami) as Vivica Bandler and Shanti Roney (Quicksand, Beck), as Atos Wirtanen.

The film was produced by Aleksi Bardy and Andrea Reuter of Helsinki-filmi, in co-production with Anagram Sweden and support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Nordisk Film handles Nordic rights. LevelK has sold the film to Japan and the Baltic countries.

We spoke to Zaida Bergroth:
Who first approached you with the project and what was your first reaction to the idea of bringing to life such a Finnish icon whose life was never brought to the screens before?
Zaida Bergroth
: I was approached by Aleksi Bardy [producer with Andrea Reuter] in the spring 2017. I was super excited and at the same time, uncertain if I would be able to get hold of Tove’s spirit and life, and really tackle the themes that this movie addresses.

What is the main theme in the film?
ZB: H
ow to be free, both in love and as an artist.

The film focuses on a specific period in Tove’s life, the so-called formative years in post-war Helsinki, when she found her true self, both professionally and privately. How much did you know about that part of Tove’s life? How widely known is Tove’s queerness?
ZB:
This is one of the reasons why we wanted to focus on that period. I believe Tove’s long-lasting relationship with Tuulikki Pietilä [known as Tooti] was widely known. We didn’t want to tell the story of when Tove is happy and successful, later in her life, but concentrate on that particular post-war period, when she is struggling. That was the most interesting on a dramaturgical point-of-view.

Also, on a personal level, I have a boundless admiration for Tove and saw her almost as ‘too perfect’. But when I heard of her struggle as a younger artist, she became closer, more familiar. During this decade [when she was in her 30s-40s] she tries to find her way as an artist-thriving for recognition as a painter. Personally, I think that period wasn’t her strongest. Something was holding her back. She was probably braver artistically when was younger, and later in her life. This was another element that made that period in her life so interesting to tackle.

Her relationship with her father seems to have been very conflictual. He didn’t feel that her comic strips and first Moomin drawings were art, and in the film, we discover that at the beginning, the Moomin drawings were more of a hobby for Tove who was focused on her career as a painter…
ZB: Yes her relationship with her father was difficult. He went to war and came back as a changed man. But he was always considered as THE artist in the family. Tove’s mother Signe Hammarsten Jansson was also a talented artist in her own right, but had to push aside her bigger artistic ambitions to provide for her family, thanks to her illustrations and graphic art.  

Tove also thrived to be a fully-fledged artist like her father. This of course pleased him, and they had art, painting as a common language. However, they did have a conflictual relationships.

I was also eager to question what lies behind your own artistic ambitions. As an artist, you are craving for recognition, but who is to judge the worthiness of your art?

How involved was Tove Jansson’s family in the project?
ZB:
I wasn’t quite sure at the beginning how much freedom I would have about this biopic. However, the first meeting I had with Sophia Jansson [niece of Tove Jansson and Creative Director/Chairman of the Board at Moomin Characters] was wonderful and gave me the confidence I needed. Sophia told me two things she hoped for the project: she didn’t want the film to be a kind of ‘wikipedia’, running through Tove’s achievements. She also hoped we could bring Tove down from her pedestal and make her more human.

The film brilliantly depicts Tove’s joie de vivre and fierce creativity. Can you tell us how you brought this spirit to the screen with your DoP Linda Wassberg, composer Matti Bye and production designer Catharina Nyqvist Ehrnrooth. Am I correct to say that you had never worked with them before?
ZB:
Yes, this is correct, and I was so lucky to have such an amazing team around me. I had met Matti Bye before and always wanted to work with him at some point. I love his band ‘Mambo noir trio’ and was inspired by that music during pre-production. We do use quite a lot of their songs in the film.

Regarding Linda Wassberg, I had admired her work, especially on the film She Monkeys. We shot the film on 16mm, which was absolutely the right choice. I was looking for something raw, poetic and warm. In a way, the film is a character study. Things happen in Tove’s mind, therefore we had to find the right tone and atmosphere to bring Tove’s inner life to the screen. With Catharina Nyqvist, she did an amazing job in re-creating Tove’s atelier in a film studio. She was very precise, with a clear vision.

Alma Pöysti gives a luminous performance as Tove-how did you cast her?
ZB:
I had her name in the back of my mind, but we still went through a laborious casting process. We did many auditions - perhaps with 150 actors -as the whole film relied on the central performance. With Alma, we prepared, rehearsed a lot, then when we got to the shoot, I tried to create a space for her and all the actors. It was crucial for me to bring to the screen that kind of breath, energy and sense of ‘aliveness’. Alma is also very meticulous, she sat for hours with the production designer, graphic designer. Watching what they were doing, absorbing everything.

You had worked earlier with Krista Kosonen on your film Miami for which she won a Jussi Best Actress award. Here again she radiates as the seductive theatre director Vivica Bandler for whom Tove falls madly in love…
ZB: Krista is a very good actor, always up for a new challenge. She has a charisma that I was looking for and a special stature. I could picture her and Alma together in a nice way. Plus they had played together on stage and knew each other well. Both are very hard-workers.

Tove’s relationship with left wing politician and journalist Atos Wirtanen who has inspired the Snufkin character in the Moomins, is also very interesting. He seems to have had a rare ability to show generous, selfless love towards her…
ZB: With Atos, Tove found somebody that she loved and who wanted to rise above primitive feelings such as jealousy. But then Tove fell in love with Vivica and things became complicated.

What touched me with Atos is that later on, he told Tove that as a young man, he felt he was too sensitive for this world, the emotions were too much for him to handle, which is why he pushed them aside. He was idealistic and thought he could accept Tove’s relationship with Vivica. I think Shanti [Roney] portrays this intelligent, sensitive and vulnerable man wonderfully.

Filming in Swedish language was also I guess an absolute necessity to stay truthful to Tove’s upbringing as a Swedish speaking Finn…
ZB: Well in my previous film Maria’s Paradise, the main character Maria Åkerblom also came from a Swedish-speaking minority, and we still shot the film in Finnish. But here, there wasn’t even a discussion about the language. It was obvious to film it in the Swedish language.

You were lucky not to have been impacted by the pandemic…
ZB: Yes we were so lucky. The only regret was not to have been able to film some scenes in Paris-we created the illusion of Paris in Turku instead!

What part of Tove Jansson’s legacy do you cherish the most?
ZB: She refused to be put in any box. However, she was a feminist and an activist, fighting for tolerance and acceptance. She also had an immense integrity that I admired. She fought at the time against fascism and embraced all the great causes.

Which one of the Moomin characters is your favourite one?
ZB:
I love different characters depending on the days, but today I relate to Snufkin. 

What’s next for you?
ZB:
I’ve worked so hard the past few years, I’m waiting for the Tove premiere-after I will relax, read poetry, fiction for a few months. Then we’ll see.