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The Film: Show me love

1998, Sweden

The Plot: It is a story of Elin and Agnes who are a pair of teenage girls trapped in the small town of Amal, an isolated place where nothing ever happens. Elin is teased for being an outsider, but she doesn’t realize that Agnes has a crush on her. After an accidental kiss, the two girls must learn about themselves and their identities.

Now the moment you say “teenage film”, what comes to mind immediately is those Hollywood films about adolescent girls focusing on 2 things: boyfriends and popularity. It’s not surprising or unrealistic, as they are important during “high school”, and form a significant portion of the average teenager’s existence. With hormones raging and bodies changing, they struggle to bolster their self-esteem.

However, American filmmakers are often more interested in presenting lightweight, feel-good romantic comedies as opposed to those, portraying intensity and also the downsides of emotions and this age. Films made here, somehow seem to deny reality and go for the safe, neatly-packaged fantasy.

Show Me Love, the feature debut of Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson, on the other hand, is a refreshingly honest, achingly true portrayal of first love, as we all have known. It is not bound by those constraints of showing every boy as a handsome “Prince Charming”, or every girl as a “Cinderella” waiting to happen. It’s a powerful, deeply affecting depiction of the tribulations of two teenage girls who are struggling with their sexuality and identities.

The most brilliant thing about this film is how well the uncertainty, anguish, heartbreak, and the highs of first love have been captured. Both Rebecka Liljeberg and Alexandra Dahlstrom deserve a round of applause for their natural, unforced portrayal of girls who, at the outset seem poles apart, but are actually not so different on the inside. They are at their most real when they’re with each other, and it’s during those scenes that both actresses shine!

The director has definitely given a lot of thought to the characters….quite touching are the scenes with Agnes’s parents…who are shown as sensitive people trying really hard to understand their children and keep the communication lines open with them…When Agnes’s little brother asks what a lesbian is, his mother explains it with a lot of maturity, and yet, when he says that his sister is suspected to be one, she’s shocked and does a raid in her daughter’s bedroom to find out her secrets.

It’s the kind of film that will appeal to any age, and is guaranteed to take one back to one’s own teenage. You see some girls who remind you of some from your life that were experts in making other people’s lives a misery, and then there’s the handicapped girl who is friends with Agnes, simply because no one else is friends with either of them.

These are friendships born entirely of convenience and without a shred of genuine affection. But then you stick together, as it’s better to have someone in your corner – anyone.
So therefore it’s quite shocking, yet understandable, when you see the worst come out of these lovable sweet characters. How they can be ruthlessly mean and evil…can be understood by anyone who’s been though adolescence!

What is attractive about this film for me is also that it is a dogme film - A filmmaking practice that intrigues and interests me greatly. Clearly, it has worked well with the film’s theme and it gives rise to stunning, natural, and most importantly “real” performances.

Oh, and by the way, the original title of the film is “Fucking Amal”, which was later changed for release in (ahem!) “sensitive” places like the US, UK etc…

And oh, this is also the most successful film of all times in Sweden, and one that gave “Titanic” a run for its money in places!

I would say it’s a beautiful film. It is about things I want to remember. Teenage…first love…confusion…innocence…

Most people remember the film as one about lesbian love, as it got a lot of acclaim in those circles as well, but I strongly feel that the movie is less about lesbianism than it is about self-discovery. Even if it were about a boy/girl romance, it would have worked as well, though would have been less provocative.

I’d just say that if you are willing to see it for what it is, it would be a small story of two girls, set in a small town, coming to terms with their sexuality and attraction…coming to terms with growing up.

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