Tove

Set in Helsinki in 1945, this drama follows the painter Tove Jansson as she tries to establish herself as a modern artist in the first years of peace. Her drawings of the Moomin creatures, first told to children in bomb shelters during the war, begin appearing in a newspaper and quickly bring her a level of fame and income she had not expected. At the same time she is involved with the married politician Atos Wirtanen and becomes close to the theatre director Vivica Bandler, while her sculptor father disapproves of her choices. The tension between the freedom she wants in her private life and the recognition she receives for work she considers secondary shapes the story.

The film is directed by Zaida Bergroth, with a screenplay by Eeva Putro and Isabella Eklöf. Alma Pöysti plays Tove Jansson, with Krista Kosonen as Vivica Bandler, Shanti Roney as Atos Wirtanen, Joanna Haartti as Tuulikki Pietilä, and Robert Enckell and Kajsa Ernst as her parents. Made in Finland and Sweden on a budget of about four million dollars, it runs 103 minutes and drew a substantial audience in Finland after its October 2020 release. It holds a 6.8 rating on IMDb from roughly 4,300 votes and a 6.5 on TMDB from a much smaller number, a gap that reflects the limited voting on the latter rather than a real division of opinion.