Best of Fest Encores
The Moomins are beloved cartoon characters, familiar to readers around the globe. But less is known about their creator, the bisexual, Swedish-speaking, Finnish visual artist and author Tove Jansson (1914 – 2001) and her surprisingly unconventional life. This engaging biopic goes a long way towards remedying that knowledge gap.
Featuring a mesmerizing lead performance by Alma Pöysti, the sensuously textured film concentrates on a formative decade in Tove’s life (from the mid-1940s – to mid-1950s) and explores her artistic and personal passions, and the challenges they entail.
Raised in an artistic, bohemian family in Helsinki, Tove was the eldest child of a prominent sculptor father and a supportive, graphic artist mother. A firm believer that life is a wonderful adventure and one should explore all its twists and turns, we see her relationships with married socialist politician Atos Wirtanen and seductive theater director Vivica Bandler, before she meets longtime partner Tuulikki Pietillä. (Alissa Simon)
Director Biography
Born in Kivijärvi, Finland in 1977, Zaida Bergroth graduated from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Espoo. She is the director of numerous acclaimed short films, and the features Last Cowboy Standing (2000), The Good Son (2011), Miami (2017, screened at the 37th MSPIFF), and Maria’s Paradise (2019).
Sponsors
