Review for Amor Estranho Amor Directed by Walter Hugo Khouri, Amor Estranho Amor (released in English as Love Strange Love
The Xuxa Injunction: Xuxa Meneghel, who later became Brazil’s most famous children’s television host, sued to prevent the film’s distribution.
The bottom line: Love Strange Love exists. It is strange. It is uncomfortable. And for those brave enough to seek out the exclusive English print—it is unforgettable.
The arrival of Dr. Osmar (Tarcísio Meira), a powerful political figure and the brothel's client, serves as the catalyst for the film’s central conflict. Osmar represents the archetypal father figure—powerful, dangerous, and possessing the mother. Hugo’s subsequent sexual encounter with Tamara (Xuxa Meneghel), a prostitute instructed to "initiate" him, serves as a displacement of his desire for Anna. However, the film’s most controversial and poignant moment occurs when Hugo and Anna share an intimate encounter. In Khouri’s direction, this scene is filmed with a distinct lack of exploitation; it is framed as a tragic convergence of need, loneliness, and the blurring of boundaries, rather than an act of perversion. It underscores the film’s thesis that desire in Khouri’s universe is often a response to existential void.