Reviewer
Niclas |
Build-up 4 |
Kissing 5 |
Love scenes |
Movie overall
5 |
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The story centers around two young girls living in the small Swedish town Åmål. One of them, Alexandra Dahlström, is the most popular girl at their school and the other one, Rebecka Liljeberg, is a shy girl who secretly is in love with her.
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Actresses:
Alexandra Dahlström & Rebecka Liljeberg
Dahlström and her sister are both grounded but decide to sneak out to go to a party but the problem is that they have nothing to drink. Then her sister remembers that Liljeberg has her birthday today and that they maybe can have some drinks over at her birthday party before the continue on. What they don't know is that no one has come to Liljeberg's party. Furthermore, this party is arranged by her parents, who still consider her to be a child, and not by Liljeberg. She wants nothing to do with it..
When Dahlström and her sister ring on the bell, it is Liljeberg's mother who opens the door and when Liljeberg is informed who have come to visit her, she becomes incredibly nervous and says to her mother to tell them that she will be there soon..that she's freshing up in the bathroom. Dahlström and her sister wait in Liljeberg's room. The sister tells Dahlström that Liljeberg is a lesbian. Dahlström thinks it's really cool and says she also wants to become a lesbian when she has grown up. Her sister thinks it's disgusting and says that if she now think it's so cool, why don't she kiss Liljeberg. Dahlström then makes a bet that she will be able to kiss Liljeberg and tells her sister to leave the room so she can be alone with her.
When Liljeberg comes into the room, Dahlström explains to her that she had asked her sister to leave the room because she has something she wants to tell her. She asks Liljeberg to sit down on the bed with her which Liljeberg reluctanctly agrees to. Dahlström says: "It's just that I think you're so cute!" She grabs Liljeberg's head, gives her a lip-kiss and then immediately leaves the room without saying anything. Her sister giggles loudly which Liljeberg can hear.
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Actresses:
Alexandra Dahlström & Rebecka Liljeberg
Dahlström comes back to Liljeberg's house because she feels really bad about what she did to her earlier. Liljeberg lets her in and soon also forgives Dahlström for the stupid thing she did. Dahlström suddenly remembers she left her jacket at the house where the party was held. She asks Liljeberg if she would like to come along. When they're on their way they suddenly come up with the idea to hitchhike to Stockholm where they believe more things happen than in Åmål. They step into a car but there is something wrong with the engine so the driver steps out to see if he can fix it. They sit in the back-seat talking about how crazy they are for doing this and also how "incredibly cool we must be" and then they open-mouth kiss.
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This wonderful movie which I've seen at least 10 times has won several awards here in Sweden and elsewhere. It became an enormous success and it's been said that the movie has helped young lesbians here in Sweden to come out and that it has also changed the way junior high and high school students treat any lesbians at their school. It's nice to know that the movie has had such a postivie influence on the way people behave and think.
The director said in an interview that he wasn't sure what to do with the kissing scene in the car. The girls were very young and he didn't want them to do anything they weren't 100% comfortable with. He suggested that they should only give each other a quick lip-kiss but Alexandra and Rebecka quickly decided that they should french-kiss.
And speaking about the car scene. When they shot it, there was a slight problem. The girls didn't hear when the car door was opened so they continued to kiss each other well after the point where they should have stopped. So they had to re-shoot the scene several times. I wish this unusable fotage could have been a part of the extra material on the DVD but it's not.
Alexandra Dahlström, who's very similar to her 'Fucking Åmål' character in the way she expresses herself, has said that she thinks that girls are nicer to kiss than boys. "Boys have such large mouths!" She sometimes kisses her girlfriends at parties.
Finally, when asked if they consider themselves to be bisexual or not:
Alexandra: "I tell my girlfriend that I love her, because I do! It would feel strange to make love to her..but I don't rule out that I'm bisexual. I think everyone is.
Rebecka: "I even believe I am, allthough I've never been with a girl. I've had feelings for a girl that were enormously similar to love. It's a very blury line between friendship and love.
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