She Monkeys (Apflickorna, 2011) – An In-Depth Interpretation of Girls’ Cruel Power Games and Sexual Tension

Even while knowing we can never truly possess another person, why do we constantly strive to control and dominate them? Director Lisa Aschan’s She Monkeys captures the isolation, lack, and dangerous desires that slip into the crevices of adolescence in the coolest and most beautiful manner. This work lightly leaps over the boundaries of simple queer romance or coming-of-age cinema, mirroring the underlying dynamics of power that flow beneath human relationships.

🌿 The Moments This Film Sinks in Deep

• When you wish to be captivated by a chilling psychological game where characters test each other’s limits under the guise of friendship.
• When you desire minimalist direction where gestures and glances speak volumes more than dialogue, much like the quiet tension atop a horse.
• When you want to deeply explore a complex and subtle narrative between women where dominance, submission, yearning, and jealousy are tangled together.

The reason you must read until the end is because it aesthetically dissects the instincts of power and moments of sexual awakening hidden beneath the seemingly peaceful daily lives of these girls, forcing us to confront the bare face of relationships we have long ignored.

🎞 Note Before Watching

In depicting the sexual curiosity and power struggles of adolescent girls, this film constructs a rather daring and provocative psychological tension. While physical contact and sadistic psychological games are included, these function not as visual stimulation but as artistic devices focusing on the unseen shifts in power and the intimate emotional lines between the two characters.

🎬 Film Information

• Title: She Monkeys (Apflickorna, 2011)
• Director: Lisa Aschan
• Screenplay: Lisa Aschan, Josefine Adolfsson
• Country: Sweden
• Genre: Drama, Thriller
• Running Time: 84 minutes
• Platform: MUBI
• Cast: Mathilda Paradeiser (as Emma), Linda Molin (as Cassandra), Isabella Lindquist (as Sara)

📖 She Monkeys: The Breathtaking Trajectory of Two Girls Oscillating Between Control and Liberation [No Spoilers]

Emma, an introverted 15-year-old girl experiencing a subtle sense of lack due to her mother’s absence, joins an equestrian vaulting team—a highly dynamic sport. There, Emma meets Cassandra, the confident and charismatic center of the team, and feels an intense attraction. Cassandra quickly permeates Emma’s life, proposing risky pranks and psychological tests, leading both of them into a relationship laced with friendship, jealousy, and sexual tension. However, as Emma displays remarkable talent in vaulting practice and begins to earn the coach’s trust, the once-stable scales of power begin to fluctuate. The conflict between Cassandra, who seeks to dominate, and Emma, who awakens to her own agency, gradually spirals out of control.

🐴 The Frame of Equestrian Vaulting: The Physical Language of Control and Submission

In She Monkeys, equestrian vaulting is more than just a backdrop; it is a powerful symbol that visualizes the inner worlds of the two protagonists. The act of balancing on the back of a massive animal aligns with the girls’ desire to perfectly control themselves and others. Cassandra was once the figure holding absolute dominance in this world of control, but the balance begins to shatter as Emma encroaches upon her territory. Rather than using dialogue, the director highly compresses and conveys the dynamics of dominance and submission through bodily alignment, the fear of falling off the horse, and the grip strength holding the reins.

🔍 Reinterpreting the Ending — The Tipped Scales and the Tamed Dominator

In the film’s denouement, the conflict between the two does not culminate in dramatic violence or reconciliation, but instead converges into an extremely static psychological submission. Cassandra, who always reigned at the top of their relationship, ultimately falls into the web of silence and initiative designed by Emma, finding herself in a position of complete inferiority. This ending is not merely a record of victory and defeat, but reveals the cruel flip side of growth: the desire to control others ultimately tames oneself. Emma gains the pleasure of dominating Cassandra, yet simultaneously faces the loss of the pure, original form of their relationship. The ending of this film declares the emotional catastrophe that occurs the moment the boundary between the dominator and the dominated collapses.

💬 She Monkeys: On the Border of Taboo and Provocation

Q1. What is the director’s intention behind the unsettling subplot of the younger sister, Sara?

The young sister, Sara, mimics the gender roles of adults while observing and imitating those around her. Although some viewers feel moral discomfort from this depiction, it serves as a realistic mirror showing how societally defined ‘femininity’ is implanted and imitated from a young age. Through Sara, the director emphasizes that the power struggle Emma and Cassandra experience is by no means an isolated incident, but rather the product of structural learning.

Q2. Is the relationship between Emma and Cassandra a queer romance, or a simple power struggle?

It is impossible to define this work within a single category. While a sensory and sexual tension clearly exists between the two, it is powerfully combined with a drive to dominate—to completely possess and control the other person. Ultimately, rather than a romantic frame of «romance,» it is more accurate to interpret their attraction as an instinctual struggle to expand the self and subjugate the other.

✨ She Monkeys: The Coldest Self-Portrait Left by the Desire to Dominate

She Monkeys boldly rescues the relationships of adolescent women from the commonly consumed frame of ‘harmless and beautiful friendship.’ The film coldly proves how thin the paper-thin margin is between love, jealousy, yearning, and the desire for conquest, questioning those of us living in modern society about the expiration date of our desire to possess others. True growth is not about gaining the power to dominate others, but the process of liberating oneself from the abnormal obsession to control them.

💬 On Distance and the Desire for Dominance in Relationships

The moment we believe we can completely dominate and fully make someone our own, the relationship has already begun to perish. Between a conclusion where one controls everything about the other to achieve perfect possession, and an ambiguous rupture where both run along endless parallel lines while acknowledging each other’s independence—which form of relationship do you sympathize with more deeply?

🎬 Violet Screen Curated Recommendations

• Princess Cyd (2017)
  • Reason for Recommendation: This film quietly captures the growth of Cyd, who spends her summer vacation with her aunt, forming new bonds in a fresh environment. It is a healing film that focuses on subtle emotional shifts and growth among characters rather than provocative narratives.
• In Between (2016)
  • Reason for Recommendation: Through the lives of three Palestinian women residing in Tel Aviv, Israel, this work depicts solidarity as they preserve their own identities within a conservative environment. The sensory direction and the relationships between the characters are treated with immense depth.