Vad gör de nu?/What are they doing now?

[Bjorn]

Hmmm I have looked around on this forum about this anthology, but I havent found anything
I guess there have been some discussions about it somewhere in the threads

Anyhow... There is a short story about Elin and Agnes in that book and their relation twelve years
later (2010)

[Santi]

In this forum there are many specific things that have been happening.

[Santi]

You who are closer could start telling us things to see if the rest of us are encouraged too.

[Ian]

I'm not even sure what you mean, Bjorn.

[Bjorn]

Ok.... "Vad gör de nu?" / "What are they doing now?" is an anthology realesed in 2011. It was published in connection with the Gothenburg Film Festival that year. The theme of the book is what movie characters do long after the movie ends, in a certain day in 2010. It´s well known movies like Taxi driver, Batman, Fight club, Amelie etc etc, and some swedish films that are only known to swedes. But also what Elin and Agnes is doing in 2010 (They are NOT happy) In total, there are 52 short stories about different movies. The authors are movie journalists, movie nerds in general etc etc


This is the closest we got to a actuall sequell to FÅ imo. I mean it has been published in a book.It´s even a picture of Elin. I´m not sure if it is Alex thou, but it can be. I borrowed this book from the library a couple of years ago and I read this short story and I know how it goes. I donno if anyone has done a summary of the short story on this site, or even mentioned about it.

This is is the cover of the book anyway

[Bjorn]

Hmmm..... I can do a summary if you want

[Santi]

Yes we want

[Ian]

Sounds awful tbh.

[Bjorn]

Sounds awful tbh.

Haha it´s actually really good It´s written by a movie director - Andreas Öhman. The whole book is brilliant

[Bjorn]

OK... Here we go

Summary of the short story "I rather be happy now". A published sequel to Fucking Åmål aka Show me love from 2011

The backstory:

An "accident" occurred during the movie Elin got pregnant after her short relationship with Johan. It was a shock to all of the kids But Elin, Agnes and Johan desided "we will fix this" (I bet their parents wasent pleased) So Elin and Johan has a son named Theo and he is almost 12 years old in this story. Unfortunately Johan messed it up during Elin´s pregnancy (or the first years as a father). He tried to rob a jewelry store in Karlstad (it´s always Karlstad ) He failed and was sent to prison. Elin and Agnes had a hard time in Åmål. A lot of gossip and stuff like that about their situation/relation. They desided to move from Åmål to Skövde (That´s pretty close to me, like 75-80 km "as the birds flies") Agnes starts to study and becomes a teacher. Elin puts focus of being a mother and is unemployed in this story. After some years Johan gets released from prison and is now doing an OK job as a dad at every other weekend. He starts to work and becomes a decent citizen. I don´t know where he lives. The years go by, and Agnes and Elin is now almost 28 and 27, and they are NOT happy at all. They have their most serious crisis ever

To be continued

[Bjorn]

OK.... I will continue but it´s so hard to do it in english text

[Bjorn]

Hehehehe.... I just bought a used copy of that book. Like 12 Euro with delivery cost

[Bjorn]

This story takes place in a single day, 26th of April - 2010, it´s monday and it´s raining). The auther describes Elin´s and Agnes thoughts. First Agnes, then Elin, then Agnes etc etc... There is almost no dialogue
OK.... Agnes is making breakfast for herself, Elin is snoozing. Agnes is unhappier then ever. She finds her situation unbearable. She admits that she was happier even before she met Elin. EVERYTHING with Elin unappealing. The way Elin talks, how she eats chicken, how/when she cries...EVERYTHING.
According to Agnes, Elin has two ""mindsets"". Stupid or horny But most is Agnes blaming her self. "How could I be so stupid and naive, so I agreed to be somekind of an "extra mum" to Elin´s and Johan´s bloody kid??" She regrets that A LOT. But back then, she was crazy in love and she agreed to almost everything. The doorbell rings. It´s Johan. Theo has spent this weekend with him. Johan and Agnes talks at the doorway. She smiles and says yes whatever Johan is telling her. She is not listening at all. She cannot understand that a person can be as stupid as Johan. It´s a mystery to Agnes. Anyway, she and Theo leaves the apartment. It´s time for school.

[Bjorn]

This story takes place in a single day, 26th of April - 2010, it´s monday and it´s raining). The auther describes Elin´s and Agnes thoughts. First Agnes, then Elin, then Agnes etc etc... There is almost no dialogue.
OK.... Agnes is making breakfast for herself, Elin is snoozing. Agnes is unhappier then ever. She finds her situation unbearable. She admits that she was happier even before she met Elin. EVERYTHING with Elin unappealing. The way Elin talks, how she eats chicken, how/when she cries...EVERYTHING.
According to Agnes, Elin has two ""mindsets"". Stupid or horny But most is Agnes blaming her self. "How could I be so stupid and naive, so I agreed to be somekind of an "extra mum" to Elin´s and Johan´s bloody kid??" She regrets that A LOT. But back then, she was crazy in love and she agreed to almost everything. The doorbell rings. It´s Johan. Theo has spent this weekend with him. Johan and Agnes talks at the doorway. She smiles and says yes whatever Johan is telling her. She is not listening at all. She cannot understand that a person can be as stupid as Johan. It´s a mystery to Agnes. Anyway, she and Theo leaves the apartment. It´s time for school.

[Bjorn]

It´s a new miserable day in Elin´s miserable life. It feels like she is sharing an apartment with a total stranger. Nothing is as it used to be. The laughs, the discussions, everything is gone. When she says something to Agnes, most of times Agnes will get grumpy or angry. But on the other hand, Elin has already told Agnes everything. There is nothing more to say. Now it´s an ice cold silence and this damning silence is driving her crazy. It feels like she´s going to burst of dispair. IT`S SO DAMN QUIET!!!!!!!!


Agnes has a few minutes to spare until she has a lesson. She drinks coffee and she´s looking at apartments in Stockholm on the internet. She likes her job, but she has nothing in common with her colleagues. She knows them by names, thats it.
Her job was only temporary in the beginning, but the years go by so fast. She has been a teacher like 3-4 years now on this school.

.