Tom of Finland (Dome Karukoski, 2017)

There aren't many internationally-known Finns besides racing drivers, but the pioneer of homoerotic art Touko Laaksonen, who adopted the nom de plume Tom of Finland, certainly qualifies. The film is a pretty straightforward biopic, charting his life from the trauma of war through the anti-homosexual repression of the '50s and '60s through to his breakthrough as a figurehead for an emerging worldwide community of gay men. It doesn't get very explicit about his own sexual life, but also doesn't shy away from showing his art, all impossibly sexualised beefcakes, and while the theme of gay men being forced to hide themselves away in a less-enlightened era is one that has been well explored in film and literature, the Finnish angle, the detailed recreation of the period and the complexity of the character lend it a substantial amount of interest beyond its most obvious target audience.

6/10