AllMovie

Finnish filmmaker Niskanen has been working as a director at the Finnish Television Broadcasting Company since she graduated from Helsinki University in 1968 where she studied drama. Prior to that, she had also studied directing at the Finnish theater Institute. Much of her work centers on issues surrounding sexuality and homosexuality, subjects that are considered taboo in Finnish culture. An example of this is her 1980 film Avskedet, which chronicles the struggles of a daughter in a Swedish-Finish family who, realizing that she is a lesbian, endeavors to become a theatrical director during World War II.