Nyrki Tapiovaara

Biography

Nyrki Tapiovara (1911-1940) is considered the first film theoretician in Finland.During a repressive period in the 1930s when his country was dominated by the Lapua (Fascist) movement, he was a prominent member of the short lived Projektio film society where aspiring artists could learn about the latest techniques and intellectualize about the medium. Projektio before it was closed by state police in 1936 was coming under the influence of Modernism and the experimental avant garde. Tapiovara's work was socially conscious in content and impressionist in style.If it had not been for his mysterious death fighting with a ski patrol behind Russian lines during the 1940 Winter War, he might have gone on to put Finnish cinema more visibly on the international map. Several of his films which had not previously been shown in the US were exhibited as part of a series, Baby It's Cold Outside, in the spring of 1998 at New York City's prestigious Museum of Modern Art.