Dome Karukoski
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Thomas August George ''Dome'' Karukoski (; born 29 December 1976) is a Finnish film director. He has won over 30 festival awards and having directed six feature films that became blockbusters in his home country and also received international recognition.


Career in films

In 1999, Karukoski was one of only three new students admitted to the University of Art and Design Helsinki to major in directing; he had had no former experience in directing or holding a camera.


Beauty and the Bastard

Karukoski's debut feature '' Beauty and the Bastard'' (''Tyttö sinä olet tähti'') showed at the
Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
and
Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...
in 2006. The film, which stars Pamela Tola, concerns young people in Finland who are caught between conventional careers and more alternative forms of living. The film's score contains contemporary Finnish pop music, particularly hip-hop and rap music. ''Beauty and the Bastard'' won the Norwegian National Film Prize Amanda sponsored by Canal+ & Svensk Filmindustri AB for best Nordic Debut-Film. ''Beauty and the Bastard'' was also nominated in eight categories for the Finnish National Film Awards Jussi Award including nominations for Best film and Best director. It won the Audience Award and the prize for Best Music.


The Home of Dark Butterflies

Karukoski's second feature film '' The Home of Dark Butterflies'' (''Tummien perhosten koti'') premiered in Finland January 2008. It is a drama about Juhani, a 13-year-old castaway sent to a home for boys on an island. ''The Home of Dark Butterflies'' was nominated in ten categories for the Finnish National Film Awards, and this time Karukoski won the prize for the Best Director. ''The Home of Dark Butterflies'' was also chosen as Finland's representative for both The Nordic Council Film Prize and the
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
.


Forbidden Fruit

Karukoski's third feature film ''
Forbidden Fruit In Abrahamic religions, forbidden fruit is a name given to the fruit growing in the Garden of Eden that God commands mankind Taboo#In religion and mythology, not to eat. In the biblical story, Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of the know ...
'' (''Kielletty hedelmä'') premiered in February 2009. ''Forbidden Fruit'' is a coming of age story about two girls who are a part of a religious sect called the
Conservative Laestadianism Conservative Laestadianism is the largest branch of the Lutheran Christian revival, revival movement Laestadianism. It has spread to 16 countries. As of 2012 there were about 115,000 Conservative Laestadians, most of them in Finland, the U ...
. The film had its world premiere at the
Gothenburg Film Festival Göteborg Film Festival (GFF), formerly Göteborg International Film Festival (GIFF), known in English as the Gothenburg Film Festival, formerly Gothenburg International Film Festival, is an annual film festival in Gothenburg, Sweden and the large ...
. It was then shown in other prestigious film festivals, such as
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (, KVIFF) is an annual film festival held in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has become Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern Eur ...
and
Shanghai International Film Festival The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF, , French: ''Festival international du film de Shanghai'') is the largest film festival in Asia and China's longest-running international cinema event. The first festival was established in Octobe ...
and won numerous festival awards. ''Forbidden Fruit'' received theatrical distribution in France and Poland. Karukoski was again nominated for Best director in the Finnish national film awards.


Lapland Odyssey

Karukoski's fourth film was '' Lapland Odyssey'', a comedy about three unemployed men setting out to find a digital TV terminal in Lapland. The road trip comedy premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...
and became the number one box-office film of the year 2010 in Finland beating such titles as ''
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1'' is a 2010 fantasy film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by Steve Kloves. The film is the first of two cinematic parts based on the 2007 novel ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallo ...
'', '' Sex and the City 2'' and ''
Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...
''. In France the film was distributed widely in cinemas with the title ''Very Cold Trip''. In Germany and Austria the title was ''Helden des Polarkreises'' which is a direct translation of the film's Finnish title ''Napapiirin sankarit''. The original title translates literally into English as ''Heroes of the Arctic Circle''. ''Lapland Odyssey'' won awards in several film festivals and received four Finnish National Film Awards, including prizes for Best film and Best director.


Burungo (short)

In 2010, Karukoski wrote and directed a fictional short film '' Burungo'' together with actress Pamela Tola. The film handles poverty and the sexuality of young girls in the slums of
Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...
, the capital of
Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
. The word Burungo means both girl and commodity in the street language Sheng, spoken in the slums of Nairobi.


Mannerheim film (not made)

In August 2011, Karukoski was announced as the new director of a film about
Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...
C. G. E. Mannerheim, after Hollywood director
Renny Harlin Renny Harlin (born Renny Lauri Mauritz Harjola; 15 March 1959) is a Finnish film director, Film producer, producer, and screenwriter who has worked in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood, Europe, and Cinema of China, China. His best-known film ...
left the project. Mannerheim is seen as the greatest war hero in Finland. The film has not yet been made, as it has struggled for years to raise its 15 million dollar budget. If completed, the film would be the most expensive Finnish film ever.


Heart of a Lion

Karukoski's fifth film is '' Heart of a Lion'' (''Leijonasydän'') in which a neo-Nazi leader (played by Peter Franzén) falls in love with a woman who has a black son. It had its world premiere at the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...
in 2013. ''Heart of a Lion'' premiered in Finland October 18 and was an instant success at the box office defeating films such as ''
Gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...
'', '' Thor: The Dark World'' and '' Now You See Me''. Karukoski was again nominated for Best Director in the Finnish Film Awards.


The Grump

Karukoski's sixth release '' Mielensäpahoittaja'', titled in English '' The Grump'', premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...
in 2014. The Grump is a tragicomedy with a retired main protagonist based on a book series written by Tuomas Kyrö. It was an enormous hit in Finland, earning gross revenues placing it in the top 3 Finnish films of the past 25 years. The film got the Box office number one spot of the year, beating blockbuster titles including '' The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies''. The Grump was nominated for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role at the Finnish Film Awards and won the award for Best Actor. With his nomination for the Best Director award, Dome Karukoski became the first Finnish film director ever to be nominated for every one of his first six feature films.


Tom of Finland

Karukoski's seventh release is a biopic of the life of iconic gay fetish artist Touko Laaksonen, which came out in 2017. This project was announced at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.


Tolkien

Karukoski directed a 2019 film about author
J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...
, depicting his formative years as a teenager and as young man during the First World War. The film was made by Chernin Entertainment for Fox Searchlight.


Reception

Karukoski's films have been well-received both at the box office and by film critics. After ''Beauty and the Bastard'' was released in Finland, Markus Määttänen, one of the most respected film critics in Finland called Karukoski "The savior of Finnish cinema". In Finland Karukoski is a household name being a regular guest in radio and TV talk shows. He caused a small stir at the Finnish Film Awards in 2009 when he kissed the prime minister of Finland on the cheek when receiving the Audience Award for ''Home of the Dark Butterflies''. His comment during the aftermath was: "People in Finland should kiss more". In 2009, Karukoski was invited by the President of Finland
Tarja Halonen Tarja Kaarina Halonen (, born 24 December 1943) is a Finns, Finnish politician who served as the 11th president of Finland, and the first and to date only woman to hold the position, from 2000 to 2012. She first rose to prominence as a lawyer wit ...
to attend Finland's Independence Day Reception at the Presidential Palace. The President invites artists, athletes, academics and public figures who are highly acclaimed in their profession and invitations are regarded as a great honour. In 2013, the U.S. magazine '' Variety'' named Karukoski in its list of 10 Directors to Watch. This was the first time a Finnish director was included on the list, which covers the whole world. Karukoski is the only Finnish director to win the main award in all of the National Finnish Film Awards: Jussi Award for Best Film '' Lapland Odyssey'' in 2011, Venla Award for Best TV series with '' Suojelijat'' and The Golden Peak Award for the Best TV commercial in 2011 with ''MTV3 MAX : Man's road''.


Personal life

Karukoski has been very open in public about his childhood when he was bullied in school between the ages 7 and 14. The bullying started after he moved from Cyprus to Finland. Because of his experiences he has taken part of numerous events and projects that are against bullying in schools. In 2013, Karukoski married his long-time partner Nadia and they have two children: Oliver and Isabel. In 2023 in a radio interview for the Finnish YLE, Karukoski revealed that the couple divorced. Karukoski was born in
Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...
,
Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...
. His mother is the Finnish-Swedish journalist Ritva Karukoski. He moved to Finland from Cyprus with his mother when he was 5 years old.Dome Karukoski: Menestysohjaaja näkee elämän tragikoomisena mutta arvokkaana
Suomenkuvalehti.fi
The father of Karukoski was American actor George Dickerson (1933-2015), who appeared for example in David Lynch’s ''Blue Velvet'', where he played Detective Williams. Karukoski met his father the first time when he was 14 years old.


Filmography


Film

* '' Beauty and the Bastard'' (''Tyttö sinä olet tähti'') (2005) * '' The Home of Dark Butterflies'' (''Tummien perhosten koti'') (2008) * ''
Forbidden Fruit In Abrahamic religions, forbidden fruit is a name given to the fruit growing in the Garden of Eden that God commands mankind Taboo#In religion and mythology, not to eat. In the biblical story, Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of the know ...
'' (''Kielletty hedelmä'') (2009) * '' Lapland Odyssey'' (''Napapiirin sankarit'') (2010) * '' Burungo'' (2011) * '' Heart of a Lion'' (''Leijonasydän'') (2013) * '' The Grump'' (''Mielensäpahoittaja'') (2014) * '' Tom of Finland'' (2017) * '' Tolkien'' (2019) * ''Little Siberia'' (2025)


Television

* ''Suojelijat'' (Episodes 2 and 5, 2008) * ''Veljet'' (2008) * ''Maailmanparantaja'' (2010) * '' The Beast Must Die'' (2021)


Music videos

*
Jenni Vartiainen Jenni Mari Vartiainen (born 20 March 1983) is a Finnish pop singer. Before her professional musical endeavours, she was a figure skating, figure skater in her teenage years and attended the Kuopio Senior High of Music and Dance. Vartiainen rose t ...
: Tunnoton (2007)


References


External links

*
Beauty and the Bastard websiteForbidden Fruit from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival websiteLapland Odyssey from the Finnish Film Foundation website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karukoski, Dome 1976 births Living people Finnish film directors Finnish people of American descent Swedish-speaking Finns