You reckon a remake could ever work?

No I don't think an american remake could work. Not because of cultural aspects (because it could be replaced with local cultural aspects) but because of a lack of understanding and acceptance of a movie that doesn't have highly packed story, both by viewers as well as people in the film community.

I love this movie. But I hesitate to show it to my friends who only watch hollywood as I'm sure they'd be asking me 'so what happens?' or 'what is the story?'

What? Why would you remake this film? There are plenty of American films that tackle pretty much the same themes!

Who knows.. anything could work if you have a good director who knows how to put it on screen.
But you say "a lot of the cultural aspects would have to be changed" and therein lies the problem.
I personally don't think anything should be changed in a remake but I don't think most Americans are openminded enough to enjoy this movie to it's full extent, so an American remake wouldn't exactly be a box office success.
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The film is a gem, and comes over fine to many people from different places when they get to see it, but I agree that much of the specific cultural frame would have to be changed for a remake. Not sure how it could be done if the film were to be staged in a US '70s context (US remake films are mostly set in a US context, or in some place and age well known to US viewers).

It's vital to the balance of the film that these people are not looked down upon, we get to see their quirks and their sometime naiveté, but also their honesty and good will; the director isn't sneering at them or inviting you to pass them off as a bunch of cranks or fools. I think that balance would be hard to achieve in a U.S. frame with a mainstream film because the kind of "culture wars" that had been raging in the background of that kind of lifestyle, and had in part shaped it, were never laid to rest in America. In Europe this is something that's mostly exited from serious political and human confrontation - people don't actually walk around exuding "Hippies, leftists and draft dodgers destroyed this nation!! They should be dragged out and spit in their faces!" within current political debate - but in the U.S. people can still be lethal enemies over issues of who opposed the Vietnam war, ran a magazine or marched for abortions back in 1970, who voted for Nixon or McGovern, etc - or use those as thundering political bullets in a campaign forty years later. And the open, observing, warm tone of a film like this one is hard to achieve if many people are still down in the trenches about the kind of people involved.

A british remake with David Mitchell (from peep show) as Goran would work in my opinion (especially the open relationship dynamics).

Also another reason this wouldn't work in US is there could never be that scene where Lena flashes her breasts to the 14 year old boy, American audience would never be ready for it since legally thats pedophilia in US while if I am not wrong 14 is legal in Sweden.