fucking-amal.com

In an interview Lukas Moodysson was asked about the reason why he had chosen a title that could lead to confusion ...
In my opinion it came off as a tangent that in Sweden it was not confusing at all because the whole country knew what It was Amal. In fact, this does not answer the question, because even knowing that Amal is a town it is almost impossible that someone does not think about changing the "m" for the "n".
The phonetic similarity is overwhelming.
Maybe it was irreverent choosing a title but he did not want to go further, in his funny irreverence, recognizing it. If what he says is strictly true, he had thousands of villages to accompany the "fucking" concept, but he opts for Amal.

For me it is one of the best titles out there and I have to admit that, as many people have done, the title was a catalyst for the decision to see the film.

So aside from ingenious, irreverent and fun, it was an exceptional marketing strategy.

(Written in Spanish by Mordecai in this forum: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1876 )

Santi wrote:...in Sweden it was not confusing at all because the whole country knew what It was...

Åmål.
Those little circular accents make all the difference.

fish wrote:Those little circular accents make all the difference.

Yes, that is the subliminal message

Santi wrote:In fact, this does not answer the question, because even knowing that Amal is a town it is almost impossible that someone does not think about changing the "m" for the "n".
The phonetic similarity is overwhelming.

I think that's an easy connection to make mainly from an English-speaking perspective; ‘Å’ (which sounds pretty close to ‘O’) is a completely different letter from ‘A’.

fish wrote:Those little circular accents make all the difference. :P

Like you were saying.

Santi wrote:For me it is one of the best titles out there and I have to admit that, as many people have done, the title was a catalyst for the decision to see the film.

The name Åmål is distinct and eye-catching in itself, even here in Sweden, and that's a huge reason as to why Lukas settled with it. The story could've taken place in any other small town really, as you said.

Santi wrote:So aside from ingenious, irreverent and fun, it was an exceptional marketing strategy.

This in part with the fact that they didn't really reveal anything about the plot in the trailers or with the early promotional material. It got people intrigued as to what the film would be like and you could argue that this played a key role to the film's initial success.

The English word ‘fuck’ has been overused as an intensifier in particularly American pop culture and it steadily continues to be devalued as a curse word with any real weight to it. This is the case at least in many non-English speaking countries in western Europe. It wasn't thought of as a very vulgar word here then despite it's real meaning. Elin says the word knulla at the end of the film for example which is considered to be way more vulgar in comparison, as it's pretty rarely used as a profanity word.

I know that in Swedish Å it sounds like O.
It is true that I have not thought that the film was originally only for Swedish public and maybe the rest (we) give it another meaning because our value of that word is different.
But although the film is Swedish and for Swedish people, the title is English and refers to the Anglo-Saxon meaning.