Debuted at the Gothenburg Film Festival on January 27, 2017, followed by a theatrical release in Finland on February 24, 2017
And they looked damn good doing it.
Simultaneously, a pair of companion exhibitions titled took over Berlin. At Salon Dahlmann, "Loves and Lives" presented personal letters, photographs, and late works from private collections to reveal the man behind the legend. At Galerie Judin, "Ecce Homo – The Preliminary Drawings" offered a rare and intimate look at Laaksonen's creative process through his expressive sketches and studies, some of which had never been seen publicly before. tom of finland -2017-
Tom of Finland's life was marked by both creative expression and personal struggle. Born in Helsinki, Finland, Laaksonen grew up in a conservative society, where same-sex relationships were stigmatized and criminalized. Despite these challenges, he developed a passion for art, studying at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and later serving in the Finnish military during World War II.
It was a year of contradictions. We celebrated his liberation while mourning the loss of his underground edge. We adored his masculine power while questioning its limitations. We watched a generation embrace his aesthetic while forgetting the blood, sweat, and police raids that made it necessary. Debuted at the Gothenburg Film Festival on January
One of the most important was "Touko Laaksonen - Tom of Finland: Of Music and Men" , held from , at the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum in Turku, Finland—the region where Laaksonen was born. The exhibition was part of the city's programming as a European Capital of Culture and featured a wide selection of his drawings, providing a deep insight into his creative process.
The , directed by Dome Karukoski, serves as a poignant, sweeping exploration of the life of Touko Laaksonen , the visionary artist whose hyper-masculine homoerotic drawings fundamentally revolutionized global queer culture. Premiering at the Göteborg Film Festival before representing Finland as its official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, the movie chronicles Laaksonen’s journey across four decades. It maps his trajectory from a traumatized World War II soldier navigating a deeply repressive post-war Helsinki to an international gay liberation icon celebrated in the sun-drenched, liberated landscape of 1970s California. At Galerie Judin, "Ecce Homo – The Preliminary
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The same year also saw the release of a biographical film, , directed by Mika Kaurismäki and starring Pekka Strang as the artist. The film offered a nuanced and intimate look at Laaksonen's life, exploring his relationships, artistic development, and the societal context in which he worked.
This artistic choice was revolutionary. Instead of depicting gay men as victims or effeminate caricatures—the dominant stereotypes of the time—Touko renders them as powerful, joyful, and utterly devoid of shame. The film beautifully illustrates how his art serves as a direct subversion of the tools used to oppress him. The uniform, once a symbol of state-sponsored terror, is reclaimed as an object of intense desire and empowerment. The Journey to Global Liberation
The movie follows Touko’s life across several decades, capturing his transformation from a repressed veteran to an internationally celebrated artist. Reeling Reviews Tom of Finland (2017)