If Lilya-4-Ever (2002) is Lukas Moodysson’s indictment against sex trafficking then A Hole in My Heart (2004) is his rage against the porn industry.  The style of the film really shows the contempt held by Moodysson.  This film has a similar feel to a French New Wave or Dogma95 film.  This is a dramatic contrast when compared to the conventional style of Moodysson’s previous films.

            This film only consists of four characters, Geko (Goran Marjanovic) who is a teenager who mostly sits alone in his room.  Then there is Richard (Thorsten Flinck), the father, who wants to gain the respect of his son, but also film amateur porn movies with his best friend Erik (Björn Almroth), and a young 20 something named Tess (Sanna Brading).

             The porn films, the trio makes, are typically enough until the men decided to wear ski masks and bring out a baseball bat. The men say it is only for pretend, fun, and show.  The line becomes blurred easily enough where the viewer is not sure if this, forcing, rough sex on Tess is all for fun or the men are really acting this out.  Tess is not comfortable with this and leaves the apartment in a hurry.  Tess ends up going to supermarket, but normal life does not have the same excitement of the porn lifestyle.  This realization brings Tess back to the apartment, making more porn films.

            Another scene I would like to point out is when the trio has a party for themselves.  This party soon becomes a playful food fight with sexually putting food in the mouth of Tess, or on her body.  This scene is clever.  The reason this scene is cleaver is how it shows the vulgarity of porn with out mimicking or becoming to sexually graphic.  Unless you have a food fetish you will not find this scene arousing, especially the climax of the party.

            It is hard to dive into all that is going on in the film.  A Hole in My Heart has many layers to it; some may go somewhere while others may seem to go nowhere.  Moodysson said, “I have cooked you a delicious meal, but I’m not going to chew it for you”.  Moodysson also has tight control over the film’s commercial release because he does not want young children exposed to the film. This film does have graphic nudity, sex, and surgical labia reconstruction.  This film does not seem to have the same control as on might be used to if comparing this film to The Idiots (Von Trier, 1998) or Julien Donkey-Boy (Harmony, 1999), but defiantly worth a watch.

Trailer here