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Lilya 4-Ever (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:65
Fresh:56
Rotten:9
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: A tragic, hard-hitting story about a teenager trapped in a life of prostitution.
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: From the first devastating moments of LILYA 4-EVER, as the cherubic 16-year-old protagonist (Oksana Akinshina) staggers, broken and beaten to a pulp, down the sidewalk of a bleak and unidentifiable... From the first devastating moments of LILYA 4-EVER, as the cherubic 16-year-old protagonist (Oksana Akinshina) staggers, broken and beaten to a pulp, down the sidewalk of a bleak and unidentifiable urban prison and the hardcore theme song from Rammstein rips into "Mein Herz Brennt" ("My Heart Burns"); until its last brutal moments, the movie never relents in portraying the darkest side of teenage life in the former Soviet Union. From writer-director Lukas Moodysson (TOGETHER), the film begins in a tiny unnamed town where Lilya lives with her mother, who is leaving for America with her new boyfriend. So desperate are the poor and angry people in this dilapidated gray city that they idolize Lilya for her luck in finding a way to escape. However, when Lilya's mom burns rubber in her daughter's face, leaving Lilya literally stripped and penniless, shivering in horror on her knees in a mud puddle, it's clear that Lilya's not going anywhere but downhill, fast. Abandoned and living in a disgusting flat with only her abused 11-year-old friend Volodya (Artiom Bogucharskij) to care for her, Lilya passes her days sniffing glue, listening to techno, and starving. Soon hunger drives her to prostitution, which is a gateway to variously horrific forms of rape and violence. When hope arrives in the form of Andrei (Pavel Ponomaryov), a businessman from Sweden who promises to take Lilya away, the film gains momentum for the descent into its terrible conclusion. A powerful film in which both Lilya's strength of spirit and her naivete allow for all the world's cruelty to grab hold of her and shake her about, LILYA 4-EVER will not easily be forgotten by its viewers. [More]
Starring: Oksana Akinshina, Artiom Bogucharski, Elina Benenson, Liliya Shinkaryova
Starring: Oksana Akinshina, Artiom Bogucharski, Elina Benenson, Liliya Shinkaryova, Pavel Ponomaryov
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Screenwriter: Lukas Moodysson
Producer: Lars Jonsson
Studio: Newmarket Films
Reviews for Lilya 4-Ever
Maybe the movie sounds like a drab and worthy slog through misery, but it's alive, it feels true, and it got to me.
It says nothing more useful than: isn't this shocking? Aren't we powerless to do anything about it?
Moodysson has an impressive ability to show the world from the perspective of children, and to elicit naturalistic performances from his youthful actors.
So seamless and relentlessly powerful that the social-realism of not just this film, but the genre itself, is pushed to its limit. Acting and action that rips so deeply, you'll feel you've got to do more than simply watch.
Lilya 4-Ever gives us a glorious, heart-wrenching debut performance in the lead, as auspicious as any in the history of cinema.
It is undeniable that Moodysson's work has a raw emotional power that transcends most of the film's flaws.
The film cuts like a knife as a critique of a disordered planet, with ever more twisted notions of consumerism and flesh as commodity
[Moodysson] dives into the soul of a 16-year-old Estonian girl and tears you apart.
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