SPOTLIGHT SELECTION

FINLAND'S SUBMISSION TO OSCAR'S BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE COMPETITION

If you’re like me, you may never have heard of the Moomins, but they were hugely popular when they first came out in the 40s, and they are now experiencing a resurgence. What is a Moomin, you ask? It’s a cartoon character, kind of round and hippo-like, from a comic strip created by Swedish-speaking Finnish author Tove Jansson, and the film Tove is a fun, dance-filled tour through her life and how she came to create them.

The end of the war in 1945 brought celebration to Helsinki, along with a freedom of expression, creation, and love. Tove Jansson is an artist born into a family of artists. While she prefers to paint and write, her very successful father is a celebrated sculptor. Tove is free and joyful, but her father is strict and disciplined and needless to say, doesn’t approve of her stories or cartoons. At all. Tove’s need to stretch her wings creatively and find her own way takes an unexpected turn when she meets theater director Vivica Bandler and begins an intense affair. But falling for Vivica isn’t only enlightening for Tove. It’s also exhilarating and confusing and painful and amazing. Her feelings begin to inform her art and before long, she creates the Moomins. Soon something she reluctantly draws in order to pay the bills gains popularity and respect, and Tove just might find her path after all.  

~ Georgia Beers