lonely-tty This is a messed up film. Lilya is already living in poverty but when her mom left, her aunt who takes care of her downgraded her house to even smaller house. Lilya became a hooker to support herself because her mom severed all ties with her. Lilya is then tricked into prostitution. Now, her only friend felt betrayed and killed himself. Lilya got depressed sex after sex and she dreamt of her friend telling to not give up. She managed to escaped but still gave up in the end because she couldn't take it anymore. Sometimes, dying is actually better than living.

Maz Murdoch (asda-man) Those who know me well will know that depressing cinema is my kind of thing. Any film that can take you on a powerful and draining experience is a film well worth seeing in my book, so when I heard about how gruelling Lukas Moodysson's third feature, Lilya 4-Ever, was I just had to seek it out. Whilst I can understand why most people would find it completely bemusing as to why someone would want to watch a film where the protagonist is put through hell, this is the kind of film I really admire when done right. Lilya 4-Ever is done right, and whilst it's by no means an easy watch, it's an important one which everyone should make time to see.The film opens to Rammstein, a heavy metal German rock band used more recently in Lars von Trier's latest near-masterpiece, Nymphomaniac. They play over a horrendous and ominous image of our hero, Lilya, running from something and covered in bruises. The entire film is a flashback which leads up to this emotive image, and it's an image which assured me that this was going to be a film to remember.Lilya 4-Ever opens with a sense of hope and optimism with Lilya looking forward to going to start a new life in America and leaving her Russian slum. However, this is quickly crushed within the first 10 minutes. Her mother abandons her and leaves her at the mercy of her hard-hearted Aunt who offers as little support as possible. Things go from bad to worse and eventually end up at the worst. Lukas does a wonderful job at immersing the audience in the world of Lilya. The raw hand-held directing is reminiscent of our own cuddly pessimist, Lars Von Trier.In fact, Lilya 4-Ever would've made a welcome replacement for The Idiots in Lars' golden hearts trilogy. The film is very much like Dancer in the Dark and Breaking the Waves in that it takes a likable and generally kind-hearted female and then the world mercilessly rips her apart. It's about as far away from Hollywood as you can get, but unfortunately this is the world we're living in. Someone, somewhere in the world is having a life like Lilya and Moodysson does a damn convincing job at portraying this.The authenticity of the film isn't least helped by 15 year-old Oksana Akinshina's stellar performance. I believed her in every frame and sometimes she just broke my heart. It was so nice to see her in those rare moments where she's smiling and laughing, and trying to make the most out of her dreadful situation. The moments when she's at her lowest are the most should-crushing, and Oksana often conveys more emotion in just one heart-breaking expression than most actors manage to do in a career.Lilya 4-Ever is an experience that is hard to forget. It didn't quite make me cry, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I welled up in more than one place. What makes the film even more crushing to watch is that you know that it's completely true and that this stuff has happened and is happening to people across the world. It's not a film you instantly forget the next day, and to me that's the mark of a truly great film. The ending is beautifully done and is powerful enough to move mountains. As I said before, Lilya isn't an easy film to watch, but very much like the equally distressing 12 Years a Slave, it has such an important message that it needs to be seen by everyone.

minnich 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.)

Jack Hawkins (Hawkensian) '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