Fucking Åmål (1998)

	Directed by: Lukas Moodyson	AKA Show Me Love NORWEGIAN TITLE Fucking Åmål COUNTRY Sweden GENRE Drama/Romance RUNNING TIME 89 minutes
	Produced by: Lars Jönsson
	Written by: Lukas Moodyson

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Elin	Alexandra Dahlström	½
Agnes Ahlberg	Rebecka Liljeberg	½
Johan Hulth	Mathias Rust
Jessica	Erica Carlson
Markus	Stefan Hörberg

Review

Lukas Moodyson's 1998 debut Fucking Åmål is a piece of pure, raw, and aesthetically flawless low-budget cinema. A film about young unconventional love and growing up in small-town Sweden in the 1990s, written and documented with a seemingly intimate understanding and a genuine connection to these kids. The film is like a sneak peek into a more or less secret – or at least highly inaccessible – teenage life from the last days of the pre-connected era. Fucking Åmål has a semi-documentarian style, driven by dialogue and trivialities, yet the larger questions in life are constantly lurking under the surface. Moodyson lets his two young protagonists – the introverted, self-harming Agnes (Rebecka Liljeberg) and the extroverted, rebellious Elin (Alexandra Dahlström) – spill their guts and set the terms for the inevitable disclosure, while we get to stand watch and cheer them on. The two young actresses give daring and boldly realistic performances that suggest how close to the material and this milieu they arguably were themselves at the time – and, of course, how incredibly well Moodyson handled the many intimately challenging scenes and situations he put them in. A classic and, in many ways, timeless coming-of-age story that celebrates life, love, and the power of the motion picture medium. Moodyson followed up with the brilliant Tillsammans two years later.