Lilya 4-ever (2003)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

From the beginning to the end, the film which blows drama wind that is more tough during the end, glamorously beautiful, the film which has a soundtrack ("Mein Hertz Brennt"), in my opinion, completed absolutely to the movie, especially to the last scene and the most important, the film which is not the mainstream movie like recommended by a "friend"

If you're in the mood for a happy Hollywood ending, don't watch Lilja 4-Ever. Unlike Taken, Trade, or The Whistleblower, to name a few, this film is bleak, unadulterated, raw, and incredible. This film sews your eyes open so that you cannot close them to the reality of poverty, suicide, and the sex trade. Lilja 4-Ever, forces you to come face-to-face with real issues, and there is not a single minute of this movie that sugarcoats these issues.Lilja 4-Ever is not only one of the best films on prostitution that I've seen, but it is one of the best foreign films I've seen. It is loosely based on the true story of Dangoule Rasalaite, a sixteen- year-old girl who committed suicide in Malmö, Sweden, after being sold into sex slavery. Lukas Moodysson, director and writer, read Rasalaite's story in the paper one morning, giving him the idea to create a film.Actress Oksana Akinshina, as Lilja, is absolutely spectacular. Her performance is flawless: her portrayal of sixteen-year-old Lilja is both heart-wrenching and awe- inspiring. I found that as I watched this film, I became more and more attached to Akinshina's character solely because she was relatable. Moodysson's writing was beyond effective to break hearts with the realization that every human life is valuable and deserving of love and empathy. Lilja 4-Ever could have been filtered through artistic angles and shots, and it could have undergone hours and hours of editing, but it didn't. This is the brilliance of Lukas Moodysson. Yet again, he presents us with something real.The authenticity of this film was what set it apart, what made it special. Another aspect in which it was more realistic than others was in the story line. It presented to us a typical girl and a typical life. Lilja and her mother live alone in a small inner-city, low- income apartment in Estonia. . Lilja's mother meets a guy online and abandons Lilja to move to his home in the U.S. Soon, Lilja meets the love of her life. Andrej gives her a ride home from the club (she goes out to sell herself) and tells her he doesn't want to sleep with her. He takes her on a date and buys her everything she wants. A couple weeks later, Andrej tells Lilja that he is moving to Sweden and that he can find her a job picking vegetables. He gives her a fake passport but soon tells her that he cannot join her. Lilja travels alone to Sweden and is met by Andrej's boss, who puts her in a car and locks her into an apartment, which Lilja finds strange. The next evening, she services her first trick. This is the reality of the sex trade and how most victims are lured into it. The word "pimp" is never used, and "prostitute" isn't mentioned. Lilja, like millions of others, slowly falls into this life. It is not by choice; it is by necessity, naïveté, and empty promises. This long, slow and painful journey into the sex trade is reality, and Lilja 4-Ever doesn't shy away from telling us. It happens to our children, siblings, and friends, right under our noses. It devours us and leaves us empty, and in some cases, it kills us. The bleakness of the sex trade is real, and it would be foolish to turn a blind eye to it.Do I recommend this film? Most definitely.

'Lilya 4-Ever' is hugely bleak. You shake your head as Lilya (Oksana Akinshina) is manipulated and abused. I read somewhere that this film is 'torture porn', nonsense, despite the sleazy, damning impression it leaves on you, it's a very tastefully made film. It's unremittingly depressing, but always tasteful.It's somewhat one-track in its storytelling; almost everyone is callous, abusive and indifferent about Lilya's well-being, none more so than her mother, who deserts her, initiating Lilya's dive into veritable squalor. I can understand how these people are going to be embittered by their tough, filthy neighbourhood, but some of the characters' cruelty and selfishness border on evil. Her only friend is Volodya (Artyom Bogucharsky), a young admirer of hers who is always thinking in her best interest. The young pair give terrifically natural performances, which help achieve the film's aura of hyperrealism.Much like films such as 'Import/Export', the camera captures the striking, achromatic landscapes of Eastern European housing projects. The scale of its anaemic bleakness that is visually arresting.The total deprivation in this film makes one appreciative of not only family and friends but basic commodities too. Lilya is thrown into a world of abject poverty, where the living conditions are so desperate that we see her attempting to sell her few, worthless possessions on a street corner. Lilya and Volodya frequently talk about a better life, but they're both so tragically far away from their fantasies. Inevitably, she discovers that prostitution is the most lucrative way of assuring she has the resources to be able to live and maybe even achieve her dreams.Throughout the film, I wanted to reach into the screen and cradle the sweet little Oksana Akinshina, attacking anyone who wanted to exploit her for whatever disgusting purpose. The film puts an innocent, sympathetic face on prostitution, an industry that's unfairly maligned and condemned by society. In fact, the film puts an innocent, sympathetic face on the underclass; its candid hyperrealism gives you a vivid portrait of total and utter destitution, helping you understand and empathise with their lamentable lives. www.hawkensian.com

Just after I saw the movie, I went to bed to get some sleep, but the entire movie just kept spooking through my head all the time, keeping me awake for hours. Even now, I'm still thinking about the horrible faith of that poor girl. That has a lot to do with the excellent acting of course. Oksana Akinshina is a complete stranger to me, but her performance was so incredibly good and so believable, that you might easily forget that you are watching a movie instead of a real life documentary. Artyom Bogucharsky as Volodya, Pavel Ponomaryov as Andrej, Liliya Shinkaryova as Lilja's aunt,... None of them is famous or has played in many other movies, but one by one, they play their roles as if they have never done anything else in their entire lives. There are two scenes that you will remember. The first shows us Lilja's face when the men are on top of her. She just lies there, helpless, without any reason to live. The second shows us the faces of the men that are on top of her. This montage lets us see the ugliness of those people, what kind of animals the world knows. 'Lilja 4-ever' is a sad movie, but a good movie. Although we probably know that things like this happen, it is not bad to realize that from time to time. 'Fucking Åmål' director Lukas Moodysson makes sure we do that with his movie. The music, as well as the way the camera was handled added very much more to the film. In the opening, the music came on so loud and the camera so shaky, you almost know the film would be unbearably painful (in more ways than one).Powerful as the film is, there are some parts which are admittedly over the top. Having Lilja and Volodya play ball with wings on the roof top is quite whimsical actually. But all said, this was definitely a film worth watching