Dir/Scr. Lukas Moulysson.
St. Alexandra Dahlstron; Rebecca Liljeberg; Erica Carlson
Sweden/Denmark, 1998, 89mins, English subtitles
Amal is a small town somewhere near Stockholm. Fucking Amal, is the refrain of bored teenagers in small towns throughout the world. It's a philosophy rarely expressed on the big screen but often heard at a bus stop. We've all been fed palatable highschool flicks, with prom nights and football teams, but few have captured the hardship or the boredom of teenage life. The reality is that nothing ever happens in Amal, and nothing will. Underage kids meet in parks or unattended houses to drink and vomit and have sex unconvincingly. But the social pool is so small in Amal that minority groups are composed of a single person. It's impossibly hard being different and there's no greater evil than intolerant teenage peers. They are unconditionally merciless.
The main narrative thread of the film is the sexual awakening of an insecure lesbian. A child asks innocently if homosexuality is an ailment requiring hospitalisation. It gets a laugh but it's a salient message. Being queer is treated like a disease in the hallways of this highschool. A frustrated and restless female lead shows convincing symptoms of chronic boredom. Screaming in the cafeteria, threatening to rob pensioners for fun and spitting at cars from an overpass seem like perfectly reasonable alternatives to "behaving".
I've seen people go through their parents bathroom cupboard and take anything that resembles a pill. I've seen people take 5 or 6 doses of anti-biotics so they'll get pissed quicker. And I've seen people stare directly at the sun until they were partially blinded out of sheer boredom. But until now I have never seen anything that resembles these activities in a film. The charm of Fucking Amal is that treats such realities with an unassuming and naturalistic air. It's just how it is. The conversational dialogue does little to call attention to itself.
On the filmic side, the few awkward zooms and the frequent use of a steadycam make the whole journey seem more like a documentary than a feature film. Lukas has extracted convincing performances from his young leads. The audience dreads their return to the school grounds, squirms at the impending torture and claps spontaneously to life's minute victories. The pace makes such relative trivialities seem all important, a tragic side effect of puberty. He has also filmed doting parents masterfully. Attentive and caring they may be, but they are so far removed from the mindset of a teenager they offer little or no consolation. They appear bumbling and tactless, victims of an age gap. If there was one unnerving theme in the film it was the class struggle. Young beautiful kids rule the playground now but, don't worry little girl, they're destined to stagnate in this small town forever. A middleclass heritage will see you pivot from the squalor and rub their noses in your success by your first highschool reunion.
Fucking Amal is a polished and very real high school flick about nothing. But for the protagonists and, thankfully, the audience it seems like everything.
adam roff
comments? email the author
return to Sydney Film Festival 1999 index
read a negative review of Fucking Amal by natalia laban.
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