‘Let’s pretend we are the only people in the universe’: Entangled Inequalities in Lukas Moodysson’s Mammoth

Abstract

This article utilizes an intersectional approach to examine Lukas Moodysson’s film _Mammoth_ (2009). When the film premiered it was by some criticized for its over-explicit critique of globalization and its portrayals of the female characters as scapegoats. My aim is to show how the film’s critique of globalization entails even more complexity. An intersectional reading of _Mammoth_ reveals that the film employs a structure of pronounced narrative layers to illustrate how different axes of stratifications are entangled on a global level, such as how the situation of the characters are determined by an interplay of their gender, class and race. The film is thus a rich example of why a sensitivity to intersectionality when mapping processes of globalization is highly important. At the same time there is an ambivalence with regard to how the female characters are represented, as the film in some respects fails to acknowledge their agency.