Lilya 4-ever (2003)

Simply Perfect

Absolutely brilliant

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

When "Lilya 4-ever" premiered in Sweden 15 years ago, it shattered many hearts and gave fire to a debate on human trafficking that would last for years. I finally watched Moodysson's amazing film and it broke my heart too.Twitter: @7thArtShortRevs (Mårten Larsson).

Lilja 4-ever is a hard film to watch because it shows the raw and naked reality of the world. There is no superhero to save you. The viewer is sure that the world is cruel and inhabited by disgusting men and women. It is portrayed as in the conversation between Rocky and his son in the movie Rocky Balboa (2006): "The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life".The writer and director is the Swedish Lukas Moodysson, from F*cking Åmål (Show me Love - 1998) and Tillsammans (Together - 2000). The story chronicles the life of a 16 years old Lilja (Oksana Akinshina), who lives with her mother (Lyubov Agapova) in a poor and dreary suburb somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Lilja is beautiful, rebellious, unexpectedly devout, kneeling always before her favorite photo of an angel with a child, and above all, she is naive. She and her mother would emigrate to the United States with her mother's new husband, but her dreams of a better life crumbles when she finds out that she will be left behind, under the guardianship of her aunt (Lilija Sjinkarjova), to eventually join them later. As the time passes by and she doesn't receive letters or money, there is a feeling that she was abandoned. With no help from her aunt, she is forced to move into a tiny apartment without electricity or heating. Desperate, she receives aid from Volodya (Artyom Bogucharsky), a boy of only 11 years old, her only friend. Disillusioned and broke, the girl meets and falls in love with Andrei (Pavel Ponomarjov), who offers her employment and a chance of a better life in Sweden.The work of the cameras was made in such a way that even not seeing some scenes we feel and suffer all the hardships aside with the protagonist. Using only the suggestion (the implicit feature that was given) the director reached and impacted the viewer more than if he had used explicit images. We identify ourselves in such a way with the central character that we want to warn her of the dangers in every step she takes towards her ruin. Oksana Akinshina, in the leading role, and Artyom Bogucharsky, in the supporting role, give us an interpretation worthy of take the hat off.The soundtrack was chosen to intensify the emotions conveyed in the film. It is responsible for giving voice to the characters at different times, expressing the feelings of joy, disappointment, grief, sadness, emptiness, anger, hatred and despair. The song of the German band Rammstein "Mein Herz Brennt" (My heart burns), which opens and practically closes the film, causes a strong initial impact, but it's heard with other ears and emotions at the end.Apart the denunciation of the tragedy that accompanied the lives of millions of people who have been abandoned to a bitter and inhuman life with the end of socialism and the break up of the USSR, in what children are the most vulnerable victims, there is also a criticism about individualism and loss of social values. The state of men without civil society is nothing else but mere war of all against all...Originally posted in: http://vikingbyheart.blogspot.com.br

Lilya 4-ever in one sense is another run-through of a theme that we've seen in many other films of the last 20 years or so: the enticement by scumbags of naive young girls into involuntary prostitution (what once upon a time was called "white slavery"). Lilya is a classic victim: young, abandoned by her family, barely scraping by in a VERY run-down Soviet-era apartment block in a nameless city in post-USSR Russia. A "nice guy" dates her, treats her with seeming respect, and the next thing she knows, she's on her way to Sweden (where her "boyfriend" will join her "shortly", of course...) for the "good job" he's found for her. I'm sure you know what happens next. The acting by both the young Russian actress who plays Lilya and the even-younger boy who plays Volodnya (her only real friend) is absolutely outstanding. (NOTE: If you're expecting nudity by this actress, you'll be sorely disappointed. There are NO nude scenes at all by her, although earlier, in a Russian night club, you see a couple topless go-go dancers with pasties over their nipples. This film packs its wallop WITHOUT any explicit sex scenes.)

There's been so much written about this film that I approached it with trepidation. The biggest temptation is to say that Moodysson's first two films were optimistic and this is pessimistic in the extreme. However, I am not quite so sure. Whilst the action and the tone of this film are very hard hitting, there still seems to be more than a suggestion of possible happiness in death for the main characters (very optimistic, right?) I feel like starting again. On the one hand the film is very moving but I didn't feel manipulated like I do with many Hollywood movies. I felt very angry at the way everyone who exploited Lilya acted, so much so that I was ready to go out and kill the Swedish pimp (if he'd been real). But still I did feel uplifted in a bleak way by the ending. Third attempt: This bleak and depressing film will and should politicise you about the situation regarding the exploitation of children in the former Soviet Union and many other parts of the world. Go and watch the movie then do something about it. However, Moodysson is still a skillful enough director to make this more than just a depressing polemic.The acting is as near faultless as you will find anywhere. The music, as in all this director's films, perfectly matches the action. It is an important film and it has an important message but it still works as art and as a movie. It's very hard to write a meaningful review. See it.