Fucking Amal

Posted in Movies by Fox on the August 24th, 2005

If you think that only blockbuster movies are worth seeing, then think again. A couple of days ago, while zapping on my 250 channels – well only about 20 channels are plausible to be seen – TV, I got to Cine Cinema, a French channel, on which a movie called “Fucking Amal” was just starting.

It’s a Swedish movie directed by Lukas Moodysson. Although it was produced on a small budget, about 22,000 dollars, it reached record attendance in Sweden – more viewers than the “Titanic” movie - and was distributed and appreciated worldwide. The English title for the movie is “Show me Love”, so if you were waiting for a teenage porn movie, sorry to disappoint you. What makes “Fucking Amal” so special is that its structure is similar to a documentary with such a realistic attitude, simultaneously a magnificent storyline is evolving with every minute that passes. The movie deals with teenagers relations among each other and with their environment (their parents, town, and society in general); it has a lesbian theme in it but it’s not exclusive. The action takes place in a small town in Sweden called Amal (that’s where the title comes from).

The plot: The least popular girl in school, Agnes (Rebecca Liljeberg), falls in love with the most popular girl in school, Elin (Alexandra Dahlström) practically waited in line by boys. Both characters suffer from several problems mainly related to their psyche: Agnes is so lonely, almost no one joins her in her anniversary party, and she even tries to get over with life at some point. Elin on the other hand, is very popular but she’s bored with life, boys and the lost hole she lives in, that is her town Amal, where popular trends become unpopular by the time they reaches the town trends (according to her words); she wants to fully enjoy her life. On one night, they exchange a kiss and this is where the feelings each other have become complementary…

I won’t say anymore about the story, but what I can assure is that it’s really an excellent cult movie. Don’t know how I didn’t notice it earlier (movie was released in 1998) on some channel or in a DVD store. In a nut shell, “Fucking Amal” is a must see-movie, you might just love it the way I did. In the mean time, you should probably watch the movie trailer or content yourself with the screenshots below.