Great Foreign Movies - Lilya 4-Ever. Review on Lilja 4-Ever Movie

What are the probable consequences of heartless parents abandonment of their kids at young age in suffering society crushed by poverty and despair? If kids are males then most likely grew up as local bully, prankster, and street gangster for living. If kids are females then most likely take prostitution or forced into prostitution for living. Lilya 4-Ever tackles one of those scenarios we either see on television or read on newspapers mostly everyday.

Lilya 4-Ever is Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson's third venture after critically acclaimed Show Me Love and Together. But, in terms of both tone and content, this effort is much darker. While Show Me Love was a poignant drama about a teen girl's coming of age and Together was about strengths and pitfalls of 70's hippie commune lifestyle, Lilya 4-Ever is a dark and grim tale of a young Russian girl forced into prostitution. Lilya 4-Ever is intimate tragedy like Tim Roth's The War Zone and Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, whose impact wrenches both the heart and the mind.

Story

Set in a dismal suburb somewhere in the former Soviet Union, 16-year-old high school girl, Lilya lives with her mother in high-rise apartment complex. Her mother meets another Russian who lives in USA through online dating agencies and leaves for USA abandoning Lilya behind. Within a day of her mother's departure, she is ordered to clear out her mother's apartment since she can't afford rents. She moves into filthy apartment complex in the same neighborhood. Her only friend is 11 year-old boy ignored by his parents from same neighborhood. Together both of them fantasizing that allow them to escape from day to day problems. But, fantasizing doesn’t yield money and Lilya needs money to continue living.

She reluctantly embrace prostitution for opportunity to make a earnings. Here she meets Andrei, a visitor from Sweden. She falls in love with Andrei. Andrei tells her that he has a job and new life for her in Sweden. Naive Lilya is overjoyed and started dreaming of living new life away from prostitution. As happens in most deceiving stories, Andrei's grandmother gets sick at last moment and Lilya has to fly alone Sweden, where Andrei will meet her in two days. Once she reaches Sweden, she learns about deceit of Andrei and realizes that she has been sold into prostitution slavery.

Analysis

Lilya 4-Ever is brutal, horrific, disturbing, devastating, and depressing, yet moving and unforgettable movie. It tells horrific story in the gloom of betrayal, deceit, prostitution, rape and suicide. Its visually hopeless and well supported by most of its premise filmed in seemingly decaying town, unpleasant neighborhoods, trashy urban high-rises complexes, filthy apartments and streets, and bleak sky with low-hanging clouds.

Lukas Moodysson's screenplay unfolds one of most memorable story I have witnessed in recent times. Film starts with bruised, tired girl running around metropolitan streets trying to suicide from the bridge over 4-lane highway. Suddenly it flashes back and movies focuses on same girl having childlike joy bragging news that she is leaving for USA to live better life. But, her mother has other plans and we witness horrific tale of naive Lilya's demise from abandonment to poverty to sex slavery. As you spend time with Lilya for next two hours, you wish there will be happiness lies for her in future. But in the end there was no storybook ending for Lilya. It is rare movie that left me shaken and numb and kept me thinking about it for days after first viewing, which delivers message that innocence is the cruelest thing to steal.

There are two prostitution sequences in the movie and both are strikingly different. Even though there are dozens of sex encounters from different directions in different positions, none of them are nude, titillating, or erotic. In fact, its horrific and further enhanced by erotic voices and puffy breaths. Her first prostitution profession in Russia was her choice and director focuses on her blank face turned away from the man above her during sexual intercourse sequences. Camera forces us to see through man's eyes and shows us how much shameful she is. She doesn't like it but still have to do it for money. Her second prostitution profession in Sweden wasn't her choice and director shows us close-ups of faces of different men puffing up during sexual intercourse sequences. Camera forces us to see through her eyes and shows us how much she disgusted by them and hates being sexual toy.

Lilya 4-Ever is full of tragic moments. One of the unforgettable sequences is when her mom is leaving her, she runs behind car, falls into mud filled puddle with broken heart and disparity, and cries forever. That was one of saddest sight I have seen about the kids abandoned by heartless parents. Other sequence is when she comes to know that her mother renounced her parentage. Lilya doesn’t have any tears left for her mom’s renouncement. She comes back to home, burn her mother’s picture, and dump her hopes. Most poignant scenes are some of fantasy illusions especially in the last sequences. These fantasy illusions are the only happiest moments she ever had in her life.

Oksana Akinshina as Lilya is outstanding. Oksana Akinshina is Lilya and Lilya is Oksana Akinshina. I can't imagine anyone else can play this character. She is childlike, innocent, beautiful, yet practical and defiant. She has beautiful hair, beautiful eyes, and dimple filled chicks. Whenever she laughs, she laughs loud, makes us to smile. She never complains about anything. She is tough and never cries even though she is in all kind of troubles. She never looses her faith in humankind and god until last moments. Oksana's naive performance is so lively that she seems real and you just feel like you could jump in and save her. Oksana's acting is so powerful that even if pimps see this movie, they will renounce their professions.

Conclusion

We all know there is millions of Lilya out there - orphaned, abandoned. Lilya 4-Ever is most likely story of every girl brought from villages or slums with false dream only to be man’s toy at brothels. If this movie can save only one innocent girl to become Lilya then director's effort is worth. This will probably be among the most penetrating, emotional, and thought-provoking films you will ever watch. It's must see.