The biopic Tom of Finland directed by Dome Karukoski has been selected as Finland’s submission for best foreign film at the 2018 Oscars.

Touko Laaksonen, a decorated officer, returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II, but life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds post-war Helsinki rampant with persecution, and men around him even being pressured to marry women and have children.

Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specializing in homoerotic drawings of muscular men, free of inhabitations. His work – made famous by his signature ‘TOM OF FINLAND’ – became the emblem of a generation of men and fanned the flames of a gay revolution.