Emanuel Claesson

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 peace-time Helsinki rampant with persecution of the homosexual and men around him even being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specialising in homoerotic drawings of muscular men, free of inhibitions. 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.

Alongside a tranquil road somewhere in Sweden live a number of people who are pretty much like people in general. When a highly improbable and catastrophic chain of events besets them, it leads to break up and change. A tragicomic story that feels both familiar and alien at the same time.

Summer by the sea. Young Nadja is about to learn how to swim. In the swim-school she is by far the best at swimming on dry land.

When Emma meets Cassandra, they initiate a relationship filled with physical and psychological challenges. Emma does whatever it takes to master the rules of the game. Lines are crossed and the stakes get higher and higher. Despite this, Emma can't resist the intoxicating feeling of total control.

This short film is both a calm and upsetting portrait of an aging author's sorrow over the death of his long-term partner. Haunted by visions of his late husband, and in conflict with his daughter who is trying to renew the ties between them, he must tackle the impossible task of moving on and finding peace in the wake of a devastating loss.