What was it about F.A that made it such a Hit in Sweden?

[Cheevers4ever]

Looking at the film a story about two teenage girls who fall in love in a non descriptive swedish town. I know their's more to the film then that but for a film thats shot in Dogma style shaky camera, having no star names, no real scandelous scenes and directed by a first time director. To outgross Titanic at the box office in Sweden is pretty impressive even today, what was it about this small indie film that captured the hearts of so many in Sweden to go out and see it.

also from what Agnes and Elin forever has told me on other threads (as our local Swedish Fucking amal fan ) the film has only been shown once on tv in sweden and that the films repuation in sweden isn't as high as it was in 1998. why is that i wonder?

[Agnes&Elin Forever!]

I never said it's been shown once on TV, I said 2-3 times.

2 times I know for sure, in 2001 and 2002, possibly once more but not on national TV, but on some other commercial channel.

The film was a hit but nobody really knew why, not even Moodysson himself

[Cheevers4ever]

I never said it's been shown once on TV, I said 2-3 times.

2 times I know for sure, in 2001 and 2002, possibly once more but not on national TV, but on some other commercial channel.

The film was a hit but nobody really knew why, not even Moodysson himself

haha sorry for the misquote hope your not mad about that

[fish]

... I said 2-3 times...

It's been shown more times in Australia it seems.
SBS, which is a channel that shows mainly non-English language films, have it on their list and every year or so it gets an airing.
In fact one of my copies of FÅ is from when I recorded an SBS showing.

[Cheevers4ever]

... I said 2-3 times...

It's been shown more times in Australia it seems.
SBS, which is a channel that shows mainly non-English language films, have it on their list and every year or so it gets an airing.
In fact one of my copies of FÅ is from when I recorded an SBS showing.

In Ireland, its been shown once that was way back 2001 at 4 in the morning on saturday during European cinema night between 11 and 6 (my brother tapped it but he missed 15 minutes of it at the start) and its been shown on BBC4 in Britian once. Moodysson's Together and Lilya4ever have been screened a fair few times over the years.

A load of great Irish and British indie films like Fucking amal in sweden that were critical hits and won a ton of awards either flopped or just about make their money back plus they perform better overseas. I just was shocked at how popular it was cause if FA was made in Britian or Ireland, it would have in no way been a massive hit here. no doubt it would have been praised and probably won a few awards.

[fish]

I'm really glad we have SBS in Australia.
They serve up a pretty good mix of European and Asian films with a few South American and North African ones thrown in for good measure.
Usually between one and three films a night depending on what their late night sporting committments are.

Fröken Sverige is another one they've shown.

Then on the Pay TV side of things World Movies Channel have 24 hr a day (mainly) non-English speaking films.
Lots of indies and that sort of fare too.
Anything from 'Room In Rome' to 'My Life As A Dog'.

[DMt.]

This is like trying to work out why anything is successful really; because it captures the public's imagination or heart, or constellates its fears? [Or does all three... ]

Presumably Sweden in particular was ready for this kind of 'look, it's love, get over it' approach to the lesbo issue, but lots of other countries seem to have picked up on it too. It's a Zeitgeist thing, maybe, such-and-such a production suits the needs of the time, and the hapless producers get hurled into the global spotlight.

[Cheevers4ever]

I'm really glad we have SBS in Australia.
They serve up a pretty good mix of European and Asian films with a few South American and North African ones thrown in for good measure.
Usually between one and three films a night depending on what their late night sporting committments are.

Fröken Sverige is another one they've shown.

Then on the Pay TV side of things World Movies Channel have 24 hr a day (mainly) non-English speaking films.
Lots of indies and that sort of fare too.
Anything from 'Room In Rome' to 'My Life As A Dog'.

ah Room in Rome what a movie over in Ireland, we're not so lucky with foreign films on tv, Saturday night on my local station they used to have between 11 at night to 6 in the moring around the early 90's to the middle of the 00's World cinema night with a Different film critic or usual a film director (Neil jordan was on once). They pick two or three films depending on their length and talk for five minutes before the film was shown. Sometimes some critics would go for well known world classic films but sometimes a odd critic would chose something you never seen before like fucking amal. It was clearly a huge influence on my love for world cinema, sadly they got rid of it (even though it was getting good ratings) just so they could repeat American shows like 24 and the like. They have a world cinema night on wednesday usually at 1 in the morning. but its just a film to fill up a few hours of tv time.

Sky movies usual show a few foreign films on their indie channel but their mostly well known foreign films and Film Four used to show Fucking Amal quite a bit when it was a paying channel now seen as its free they don't usual show as many foreign films as they once did.

[Cheevers4ever]

This is like trying to work out why anything is successful really; because it captures the public's imagination or heart, or constellates its fears? [Or does all three... ]

Presumably Sweden in particular was ready for this kind of 'look, it's love, get over it' approach to the lesbo issue, but lots of other countries seem to have picked up on it too. It's a Zeitgeist thing, maybe, such-and-such a production suits the needs of the time, and the hapless producers get hurled into the global spotlight.

I wonder today would it even be a hit seen as its more open minded (well in most places)but at the time it probably did capture a moment in time about the lesbo issue and if you take away the Lesbain part of it its a sweet good natured film that would have worked with any traight or gay couple (plus at the end of the day is it really all about been lesbain or just about been an awkward teenager trying to find your way in the world).

[katka]

I can only confirm that, to re movie just came on light-world in the right moment, when the issue of sexual orientation did not solve much, it was taboo and everyone was with it hiding and didn't talk about it. This film clearly breaks one of the biggest taboos and makes it very natural way. This film hit a lot of people in the subconscious and is addressed mainly young people. But I think that even today, the older, conservative people don't understand and don't accept the film.

[DMt.]

Well, who wants to be their tight-arsed sort of 'normal', anyway?

...and both FA and NdP will be carefully avoiding lesbo porn clichés, too, I imagine.

[Ian]

Well, who wants to be their tight-arsed sort of 'normal', anyway?

.

And amen to that.

[Agnes&Elin Forever!]

We've talked about this before on the forum, Fucking Åmål wasn't so much a gay film that broke a lot of taboos.

I mean come on, this wasn't exactly a controversial film.

In Sweden at least it wasn't regarded as such, even at the time in 1998.

But maybe it was looked on differently in some other markets?

But anyway, it was above all a sweet and sensitive teen movie.

A coming of age film, and a film about being different among the mainstream.