The freedom that the young take for granted has been achieved at someone else’s expense.

Jolanda, a retired archivist, has spent most of his life in the closet. In the late 1970s, he stood on stage alongside his friend Mummo in Finland’s first drag show, ‘Happy Gays’; the performance was even broadcast on television, and Mummo became one of the first openly gay men in Finland. Then came AIDS, fear and violence. In April 1988, Mummo was murdered in his home; the police were unwilling to solve the case and the entire crime was hushed up. Now, more than thirty years later, Jolanda is opening up his own archive and inviting a new generation of drag artists to bring ‘Happy Gays’ back to the stage.

Vesa Kuosmanen, whose “Just Animals” screened at PÖFF in 2023, weaves together several layers in the film: archive footage from the 1980s, staged reconstructions and contemporary footage from rehearsals, where young people for whom drag is a form of self-expression clash with the customs and traditions of the older generation. This contrast gives rise to both humour and a sense of recognition. The freedom enjoyed by today’s youth has been built on the shoulders of people whom no one has ever thanked. This warm and heartfelt film is a story of one community’s cultural memory. It reminds us that Pride began, in part, out of fear, and that one small show was once a tiny step towards resistance and freedom.

Mikk Granström