Award-winning filmmaker Dome Karukoski brings to screen the life and work of artist Touko Valio Laaksonen (aka Tom of Finland), one of the most influential and celebrated figures of 20th-century gay culture.
Decorated officer Touko Laaksonen returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II, but life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds peace-time Helsinki rampant with persecution of the homosexual men around him, who are even being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specializing in homoerotic drawings of muscular men, free of inhibitions. His work, made famous by his signature 'Tom of Finland', became the emblem of a generation of men and fanned the flames of a gay revolution.—Helsinki-filmi
At a time when the gay community lives a closeted lifestyle, in fear of persecution, Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, created a completely new variety of sexually liberated art for gay men. His work changed the lives of millions of people around the world and fanned the flames of a revolutions in the USA, emboldening a new generation of homosexuals to stand up and celebrate what they were.
