A Hole in My Heart

Shot under extreme secrecy and set in a dingy suburban apartment, the film features some of the most shocking and unsettling images in recent memory. Moodysson focuses on Rickard (Thorsten Flinck) and his painfully shy son Eric (Björn Almroth), who spends most of his days holed up in his room listening to spectacularly abrasive industrial music, presumably in an attempt to drown out what's going on in the rest of the apartment. His father, an amateur pornographer, is shooting his latest opus with a friend, Geko (Goran Marjanovic), and a young woman named Tess (Sanna Bråding). As the trio gets drunk and more impressed with themselves, they lose what few inhibitions they had and their behaviour grows more and more disturbing. In some ways, A Hole in My Heart suggests the writings of the Marquis de Sade - especially in its emphasis on the bedlam that erupts when social codes are entirely abandoned. It may be even more disturbing than de Sade, since a sense of ritual and class are virtually non-existent here. Moodysson's working-class characters are completely unaware of history; about the only things they're familiar with are pop psychology, cosmetic surgery and tabloid journalism. The funniest moment comes when Geko counsels Rickard on his difficulties connecting with Eric. They are decidedly infantile and almost criminally naive, which complicates our response to them. We find them both repulsive and strangely pathetic. No doubt Moodysson is satirizing the whole reality television trend and its faux celebrities. That said, as relentless as the film is, there are some grace points, most notably Eric's brief, stilted conversations with Tess.