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.
- IMDb mini biography by: Lawrence Chadbourne

Brother of Ilmari Tapiovaara and Tapio Tapiovaara.

His last film One Man's Fate (1940) was finished by producer/cinematographer Erik Blomberg and actor Hugo Hytönen after Tapiovaara became one of the many victims of the World War II.

Spoke Finnish, Swedish, English, German, French and Russian.

Started as a film critic, then went on to run a theater and direct few plays for it and then was hired to direct Juha (1937), his first film. At the time of his death, he was in a relationship with a female film critic _Toini Aaltonen_.