Due to ongoing rights disputes between Xuxa’s estate, the director’s heirs, and international distributors, Love Strange Love exists in a legal grey zone. The original film negatives are held in a vault in São Paulo, but the English master tapes are scattered across private collections.
The scene in question—a prolonged, partially nude interaction between Ana and the boy—is executed with artistic lighting by Khouri, but the intention remains ambiguous. Is it a criticism of predatory power structures? Or gratuitous exploitation?
Yes. The same Xuxa. The "Queen of the Shorties," the beloved children's television host who later sang about Easter bunnies and xylophones, is at the center of one of the most controversial erotic scenes in cinema history. That dissonance—the innocence of a children's star colliding with the explicit nature of "strange love"—is why this film refuses to die. Most Brazilian films from the pornochanchada era (a Brazilian sex-comedy genre) never received international dubs. Amor Estranho Amor was different. Investors saw potential for an art-house/grindhouse crossover in the United States and Europe. Thus, the English exclusive cut was produced. amor estranho amor love strange love 1982 english exclusive
For Brazilian cinephiles, the film is a painful scar on a golden era of cinema. For international collectors, it is the Holy Grail of Latin American exploitation. If you manage to track down the English exclusive of Amor Estranho Amor (Love Strange Love, 1982) , go in with your eyes open. This is not a date movie. It is not a nostalgic trip. It is a difficult, problematic, beautifully shot piece of celluloid that asks questions we are not comfortable answering.
The boy, Hugo, becomes an object of fascination and possession among the women of the house. The narrative builds toward a disturbing psychological climax: the boy loses his virginity not to a peer, but to the sophisticated, world-weary Ana (played by famous Brazilian TV star and later children’s icon, ). Due to ongoing rights disputes between Xuxa’s estate,
This aesthetic has influenced modern "sleaze revival" directors like Nicolas Winding Refn (who reportedly owns a rare English print) and Gaspar Noé. Here is the hard truth for the modern searcher: You cannot stream this film legally in English.
We search for this film for the same reasons we search for Salò or the uncut Cannibal Holocaust : to confront the forbidden. But Love Strange Love adds an extra layer—the uncanny valley of seeing a beloved children’s entertainer in a context that shatters her public image. Is it a criticism of predatory power structures
Why “exclusive”? Because for decades, the original Portuguese-language version of Amor Estranho Amor was overshadowed by a mythic, hard-to-find English-dubbed cut. This version, often titled Love Strange Love , was circulated on grainy VHS tapes in the 1980s international market. Today, finding the print is akin to discovering lost treasure.