Tove Jansson documentary screens on BBC Four

A new documentary, Moominland Tales: The Life of Tove Jansson, directed by Eleanor Yule, was broadcast on BBC Four on Boxing Day. The film spanned the life of Tove Jansson, showing how her parents were the models for Moominmama and the melancholic Moominpapa, following her career in fine art and satirical illustration during the Second World War to the creation of the Moomins, and then her turn to adult fiction. It includes footage from several of the 8mm home movies shot by Tove’s long-term partner, Tuulikki Pietilä, with whom she lived on her ‘summer island’ in the Gulf of FInland. The film has several more screenings due and will then be available on the BBC iPlayer. See the BBC page for details (and a clip from the film).