We Are the Best

We Are the Best, a riotous Swedish feature length film that showed briefly at the BFI Festival in London last October is back for a much more substantial run this April. 

The film, based a graphic novel by writer-director Lukas Moodysson’s wife Coco. It is a joyful coming of age story, grounded by feminist undertones, but lifted by a desperately cool, almost surreal aesthetic, that contrasts with the banality of each of its young anarchistic heroine’s lives; boys, parents, and girls with blonde hair. The story is one of triumph for these thirteen year olds, who are trying to keep ‘punk’ alive in a world that claims it is dead, but it is one of those rare films that does not attack a ‘target audience’, and will make you want to punch your hand in the air alongside the three spiky leads, whatever your age. 

Lukas Moodysson, the writer-director of this indie-comedy, may not yet be a household name in the UK, but he has a wealth of experience behind him. You might have seen his work in Show Me Love (1998), another technicoloured coming of age romp, which won nineteen international film awards, including the British Film Institute’s coveted Sutherland Trophy. This accolade, presented to an “original and imaginative first feature”, hints at the mood of this more recent offering too, which is full of twists and surprises- we suggest you watch until the very end of the credits to catch them all!

Lukas has been quoted saying that he treated his wife’s novel with ‘disrespect’, and that he wasn’t intending to comment on feminist issues in the film, but he tends to be evasive in interview. We recommend you watch this fantastic, effervescent film and make up your own mind about what this talented director was trying to achieve.