The biographical drama about the painter, illustrator and caricaturist Tove Jansson, with a budget of 3.4 million euros, was the second most expensive Finnish film of all time, and “Tove” was also a Finnish candidate for the Oscar. Although Tove is best known for children’s picture books about the Moomin, this stylized drama by the experienced Zaida Bergroth could not possibly be characterized as a children’s film. This aestheticized drama, produced with extremely high quality, follows the artistically formative years of the protagonist, from 1943, when she had her first solo exhibition, until sometime in the early fifties, when she already became famous and successful.
As was usually the case, in the beginning she was not particularly successful, so we meet Tove (Alma Pöysti) back during World War II, trying to get out of the shadow of her father, a famous sculptor who is not very enthusiastic about the idea of his daughter becoming a little insecure , in an avant-garde way and deals with a different kind of art. However, apart from Tova’s artistic development, her private life is in the foreground. In the beginning, we see Tove and her artistic team organizing illegal parties during World War II and how she gets into a relationship with a married politician. However, the key moment for this film will be Tova’s meeting with the mayor’s daughter Vivica (Kristi Kosonen), who was described by her acquaintances as a girl from high society who pretends to be a theater director.
Almost immediately, Tove will fall in love with the tall and striking Vivica, an egoist and manipulator who will prove to be a real femme fatale for the painter. Of course, Vivica is also married and she does not take the affair with Tove too seriously, and the young artist who has just started working on the characters that will make her famous, will become completely infatuated with her. Vivica will come and go like this for years after she moved to Paris after the war, leaving Tove in chaos and unrealistic hopes, and this forbidden love for Tove will also serve as a lesson for several reasons. She will try to fill the sadness and unhappiness of her private life with work and drawing, and very soon she will become a big world star. Apart from the fact that Bergroth made the film with a lot of style, feeling and measure and that “Tove” was produced with extremely high quality, perhaps the most important part of the work was done by Pöysti. This more theater than film actress managed to build a complex and well-rounded character whose psychology the viewer can understand.