Lilja 4-ever (2002) Reviews

• Lilja 4-ever is as good as it gets

  nyongo_12003-02-05

  It is not often that everyone is quiet after a movie at the cinema. Some were crying, others did not know how to act, ending up staring out in to the emptiness. For me, nothing was the same after I did leave the cinema. I know that it sounds like a cliché, but I tell you, it is not. Some of these people were laughing before they sat down, but the haunting beginning of the movie did wake everyone up. Every day you do wake up, when you are working you do hurry away; maybe you take your children with you to leave them at the nearby kindergarten. If it is a holiday, maybe you are of to meet some friends. In the evening you come home, you are cooking and eating. Maybe you do sit down with your wife and kids watching a good TV-show. When the night comes, you are wishing your child's a good night's sleep before you go to bed. It is not easy for you to know what is going on inside the apartment of your neighbour. The time that pass from the beginning to the end is the time the director Lukas Moodysson have to convince you that the reality is not as good as you may think, or maybe you already know, all to well. The reality of leading character Lilja becomes slowly a part of your reality. You can choose to see Lilja in two different points of view. You can see her as a part of a fairly tale, and nothing more, than her life story will disappear after the movie in your shower. Or you may see her as she is; a picture of what life can do with people who are not as lucky as you, a picture of other girls in the same situation as she. The great acting of the 15 year old Russian actress Oksana Akinsjina makes it possible. I did almost forget that she is not Lilja when I did see the movie, it is heartbreaking when she is crying, and when she is happy her smile is the most wonderful you have seen that day. But a few minutes later you may see pain in her eyes. If you are thinking about what is happing in the movie, you will understand her reactions. When it is painful then she cries without hope, when it is too painful she doesn't seems to react at all (exactly like you!) and you don't need to imagine to feel the pain she have inside. The one that will become more close to her than anyone else is the street kid and male leading character Volodja act by the 12 year old Artiom Bogutjarskij (his first movie). I have worked with street children and his acting is very authentic. When everything falls apart for Lilja, Volodja becomes her last hope, he is never leaving her in her mind he is always close. He is the one who is always there, the one that catches her when she falls. Lukas said in an interview that Volodja are a shape of Jesus in the end you will understand. These parts are telling about the dreams of Lilja, whom makes it easier to understand her vision of hope. Lukas is the best Swedish director now and maybe of all time. The integrity of his actors is intact, that he manages to do it in a movie like this shows how good as a director he is. He has a moving respect for Oksana and the way he cares about her integrity is the thing that makes this movie worth looking. His manuscript is trustworthy and don't have any illogical lacks. Nothing is darker than it could be in the reality. All characters are three dimensional and even the evil characters are human, even the victims are not just victims. You may wonder if the reality is this dark. In a article in a Swedish newspaper Lukas Moodyson told that he had spoken with a social worker and he was told that some mothers do sell their own kids for 1 £ to the sex industry. Though the movie is fictional and not about her, many of the memorable things that are happening to Lilja in the movie did happen to Dangoule Rasalaite from Latvia between the 17th September 1999 and the 10th January 2000. Lukas read about her in an article. The reality is always worse than the fiction. The young actors do carry the weight of the movie with grace. Their acting against each other is moving, it is a special chemistry between them. Lukas has the gift of finding the right persons for the characters in all is movies, and Lilja 4-ever is not an exception. Last Monday Lilja forever won 5 out of 6 gold beagles (the most important Swedish film award) it was nominated to (Artiom was also nominated for best performance by an actor). The awards it won were for best movie, best picture, best manuscript, best direction, and the most important of them all, best performance by an actress. Trafficking is the third biggest illegal industry in the world; it makes this movie so important. Lukas Moodysson and Oksana did manage to wake up this nation, to show that our reality is not as good as we thought. We can see it in the reactions of the cinema public, how people are talking about it afterwards, and in the newspapers. The Swedish government are working for the possibility to show this movie in schools all over the former Sovjet Union. Lukas has said that if this movie can convince one girl to make other decisions than Lilja and to many other young girls; this movie was worth making. This movie is worth more than all the awards it has won and all the awards it will win. This movie can change your point of view, it is that message of hope it brings. /Josef Lundström

• It is a lot more than a film concerning human traffic

  bkelchev2004-10-10

  I like films that make one think. They don't answer one's questions, but rather help one find the answers for oneself. Such films are so valuable because they explore the human mind and personality. Everyone has been involved in situations when one needs to know what the person in front of him or her is thinking. Lilja 4-ever is a film that leads us in the dark world of a beautiful girl who has not yet grown enough to face the hardships of life, let alone the hardships of life in a place like that she lives in. Although the film is much acclaimed because it raises the problem of human traffic, it achieves much more than that. It raises the problems of human selfishness, betrayal, dignity, hopelessness, lie. It explores love and friendship. It conveys a simple but incredibly important message - we are those who are responsible. What fascinates me about European cinema is that it explores in great depth the human personality. Lilja 4-ever employs an ordinary script and is directed in a way that ,at the time of watching, one does not, at all, think about the director's work. Thus, one can concentrate entirely on the plot, on the development of the characters and their stories. For that, I congratulate Lukas Moodysson. Critics acclaim the film because it concerns the problem of human traffic. However, much of the film focuses on Lilja's life before she is forced into prostitution. During that time, Moodysson carefully explains why many people end up leading such terrible lives. She is an innocent girl who knows almost nothing about life. In an unbelievably short period of time she is abandoned by her mother, thrown out by her aunt, betrayed by her friends, cynically humiliated by her teacher. The only hope she has is her dream that one day she would be able to go to a beautiful country where she would meet hospitable people and have many opportunities. She is striving for happiness and tries to find it anywhere she can. Unfortunately, the only people who offer their help are little Volodja and a deceitful man. Volodja is the little boy who finds the angel inside Lilja. Ironically, the only person who truly likes and wants to help her is incapable of doing so. His life is as miserable as hers. Lilja is abandoned, left to starve, raped, forced into prostitution, and yet not one of these moments disturbed me as much as the smile on her face when she is lied by a person in whom she sees hope and salvation. In my opinion, that is the single strongest and most substantial moment in the whole film. Lilja 4-ever is a masterpiece in its own way. It changes perspectives ... It manages to explain how innocent and pure a prostitute's mind can be. How many of us relate words such as pure and innocent to prostitution? It urges us to be concerned, to feel responsible, and to believe in the importance of GOOD ...

• Adorable film, but terribly sad..

  Exiled_Archangel2003-05-01

  I wasn't surprised by how perfect this film is from the first second to the last, since it's directed by Lukas Moodysson. Different than Tillsammans and Fuckin Åmål in style, but still absolutely fascinating. I could find only one minor flaw, which is Lilya's make-up after the fall. But everything else was wonderful. I hadn't heard of Oksana Akinshina before, but I have a strong feeling I will in the near future. She's really good. I was also amazed by the acting of the little boy. The frames come so strong that you start to empathize with Lilya after some point. By the end of the film, I was feeling like she was my sister and I wanted to knock those procurers' heads off. I've heard the plot is based on a true story of a Lithuanian girl. I think it's not based on one single true story, it's rather a blend of several true stories. There are many Lilyas, Natalias, Annas out there who are suffering a similar fate. It's so very sad to see how those innocent girls grow into prostitutes just because they're born in some particular country. Anyone with a heart will be touched and anyone with a taste on movies will be stunned by this movie. I'll buy the DVD as soon as it's available. It's a must have for any collection. One of the rare films I would watch more than once. Total 10.

• Deeply moving, effective and sharp

  skoo792004-10-22

  The film is rather conventional, maybe clichéd to some people, in terms of storyline, but by no means any less effective about reaching out to audiences what the director wants to tell. There is a marked distinction between prostitution and child/adult sex slavery. The former is a transaction between 2 consenting parties who understand the implication of the deal (what is known as the world's oldest trade), while the latter is a crime of utmost human grothesqueness. It is almost in total contradiction to the thought that modern world has achieved civilised behaviour. The film portrays this to a very effective end. Kudos to the lead actress who brings out the desperation and tragedy of the Lilja's life with such depth. There were indeed many memorable scenes, 2 which affected me deeply were: when Viktor methodically asked Lilja for her fake passport; and when Lilja was raped in the bathroom by Viktor the very next morning. Contrast this to the optimism and happiness she felt in the Duty-Free area in the airport (no means by a shopaholic) and just when she woke up in the apartment in Sweden (although it was as about as dreary as her home in Estonia). The methodical way Viktor asked for Lilja's passport is astounding. Lilja's obviously not his first prostitute and definitely not his last; Viktor is also one of the many pimps who participates actively in this form of slavery. It is unimaginable the magnitude of this crime. 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.

• compelling Swedish drama

  mfridell2004-12-05

  Lilja 4-ever is an excellently-crafted film created by and for Swedes to help stimulate public debate and redress the issue of the vulnerability of immigrant children. It's a cruel, enlightening, compelling watch for anyone in the West, but it's most definitely not a movie for escapism, it's not an After School Special, and it's a world away from the endless contemporary assault/insult of bald neocon propaganda on Anglo-American screens. Unless you're very, very dead inside, Lilja 4-ever will horrify you, move you to tears, and leave you speechless...at least in its immediate aftermath. And if you are dead inside, the implicit subject is inexorable capitalist alienation and trauma, so why not catch a representation of your own inner life on film? Maybe you can work it into a drinking game. Based on actual, turn-of-the-21st-century suicides of escaped post-Soviet child prostitutes in the suburbs of Sweden, Lilja 4-ever is a well-done drama, featuring terrific acting--especially by Oksana Akinshina and Artyom Bogucharsky. It presents moody and stark cinematography, fine script-writing, and solid direction. Lilja 4-ever is not a documentary, but its subject is relentlessly grim and real: the tragic personal results of the continued, desperate corrosion of Eastern European society and its tacit, rapaciously opportunistic exploitation in the isolated, commuter highway-bound suburbs of the West. For its success in making these links visible and cinematic, Lilja 4-ever is outstanding. I saw Lilja 4-ever when it was released in Stockholm in 2002. You can't watch this particular movie waiting for some good one-liners to repeat to the guys around the water cooler. You may not be able to identify with Lilja. You don't need to feel like she could be your girlfriend. For this movie to work, and to grasp who Lilja is, you need to be able to feel human compassion, sympathy and empathy, and to recognize and appreciate the drama in our socio-economic connections.