Once upon a time in Helsinki, a young lady full of dreams and vitality wanted to transcend history but didn’t know how. Her name was Tove Jansson. Her superpower was drawing, and her immeasurable creativity resulted in the adorable creatures known as “The Moomins.”
At the end of WWII, in Finland, culture was moderated by politics and religion to reunite society. At that time, the arts were a fundamental part of the country’s economic recovery. Tove’s renowned father, acclaimed sculptor Viktor’ Faffan’ Jansson, wanted to see his daughter become an extraordinary painter, but destiny had other plans.
While Tove’s father worked on his art, the daughter consumed her precious time drawing sketches. When the concerned parent asked her to continue painting, she responded sarcastically, “Should I paint something for our fatherland?” The dialog and the visuals create relevant symbolism throughout the entire movie.
She wanted to gain independence and freedom from her parents. But those idealistic goals have a price. First, she must create a sanctuary to get inspiration, connect with her interior light, and perhaps a muse. She wants to use her experience as a well-traveled, liberal woman who knows how people in Morocco live.
Meeting a guy is a start to opening to her sexuality and a deeper existentialist level. Tove is a free-spirited woman who thinks having sex with another woman resembles a flying dragon on fire. Still, she believes that life is a beautiful adventure. In her artistic field, rejection does not come from her father’s disapproval but from academics.
She starts moving away from paintings to sketches and plays with the idea of having stripes with dialogues. Soon, her original and fun illustrations transformed into many satirical cartoons.
Among the bourgeoisie, Tove feels sorry for people who are not artistic. “Ingenuity is a hallmark,” she says, referring to a personalized birthday card she drew for the wealthy father of her new best friend, Vivica Vandler (Krista Kosonen). Vivica is a theater director with whom Tove falls in love and decides to live the intensity of the Palme d’Or winner “Blue is the Warmest Color,” explicitly speaking.
Throughout the film, her graphic work becomes more relevant, and Tove’s unassuming and original work gains followers. Her friends and loved ones are drowning in the mysterious world of the Moomins, and Vivica treasures a blueprint of The Moominvalley and makes it hers.
Vivica convinces Tove to write and stage a children’s play and elaborates that costumes and sets were a titanic labor of love that would pay off later in her life.
In the 1950s, her debut as a cartoonist reached a bigger audience when she signed a juicy contract with the London Evening News, the world’s biggest newspaper. She had to publish a comic strip weekly. She asked her brother Lars Jansson to come on board to meet the demand.
The Moomins are physically ambiguous in form and color; for instance, they are white and neutral. Their shape is not precisely a hippo, but those charming, chubby creatures are the cutest.
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| Book cover courtesy of Drawn & Quarterly |
“Tove” is structured similarly to “Tom of Finland” - the 2017 biopic of an artist pioneer of LGBTQ rights. Tom revolutionized the world of graphics with his risqué and daring illustrations.
Without smearing the feminist crusade in the face, director Zaida Bergroth (“Last Cowboy Standing,” “The Good Son”) recreates Tove’s world in Europe during the 40s, 50s, and 60s wonderfully and delicately portrays the life of Tove Jansson. Bergroth focuses on Tove’s art and humanism, social class, and women’s sexuality eloquently.
Written by Eeva Putro, “Tove” is the final biographical film of Swedish-Finnish author and illustrator, creator of the world’s acclaimed Moomins, who transcend through time. The film was selected as the Finnish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.
“Tove” is a passionate and imaginative work of art worth waiting for us to divert it to expand our knowledge about essential creators who brought out transcendent animates and endearing characters such as “The Moomins” to life.
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