This is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time.Lilya lives a normal life (mum + mum's boyfriend) in a crappy neighborhood. Suddenly her mum decides to leave to the US with the boyfriend to the US, leaving Lilya alone. The mum says she'll call Lilya sometime to ask her to come to the US but tells her own boyfriend otherwise ("it's just us"). So the mum abandons Lilya in the apartment. The mum leaves her daughter some money, enough for one trip to the convenient store, but not enough to pay the rent. Lilya refuses to hug her mom, but then changes her mind and runs dramatically to the car for a hug. She screams "mama! mama!" and tears flow from both. She then slides into the mud on her knees in slow motion (no really, in slow motion), covered in mud, crying, as the mum drives off. Then a dog comes (still in slow motion) to the filthy Lilya covered in mud crying on her knees.That was the first sign that this is a terrible film. It was so poor that I almost recommend to people to watch it. But don't.Lilya is forced to move to her aunt's house because no one can pay the rent. The aunt takes her to an absolute dump where the previous tenant died. The aunt says it's warm, there's a fridge, running water, etc. The next day the power goes out because the aunt didn't pay the bill. So no hot water, no fridge, no heat, no light. Lilya has to use candles from now on.If you feel that that isn't contrived, just wait, it gets better. I'm still in the first part of the film. The real story didn't get started yet.So Lilya goes out with her friend who tells her of easy money being a prostitute. When her friend got caught with the money, she told her dad that it was Lilya's money, that Lilya is a prostitute. Her dad makes her return the money. Now everyone calls Lilya a whore. People throw things at her. She can't walk on the street anymore, so she runs home. That's when she discovers the power is out. It just gets worse and worse.This is pure exploitation. It's tragedy porn. There is zero subtlety in this film. There's a scene in the first 15 minutes where an 11 year old boy attempts suicide, just to add to the crap. He is thrown out of the house by his mad father. He smokes glue and dreams of a wife baking him fresh bread. Moodysson found a way to sell people a crappy film with a Russian veneer and everyone is falling for it. His other films are right here to see on IMDb. Container 5.2/10. A Hole in My Heart 4.6/10. He makes some shorts, a TV movie, a documentary. This is his third feature film.He made a film about refugees, he made one about pornography, he made another one about prostitution (and AIDS? - Mammoth 2009), so this one is just another in the same vein or should I say formula?If you really want to watch something from this director, watch "We Are the Best!" - possibly an accidental success in his career.

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 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.)

There's been so much written about this film that I approached it with trepidation. The biggest temptation is to say that Moodysson's first two films were optimistic and this is pessimistic in the extreme. However, I am not quite so sure. Whilst the action and the tone of this film are very hard hitting, there still seems to be more than a suggestion of possible happiness in death for the main characters (very optimistic, right?) I feel like starting again. On the one hand the film is very moving but I didn't feel manipulated like I do with many Hollywood movies. I felt very angry at the way everyone who exploited Lilya acted, so much so that I was ready to go out and kill the Swedish pimp (if he'd been real). But still I did feel uplifted in a bleak way by the ending. Third attempt: This bleak and depressing film will and should politicise you about the situation regarding the exploitation of children in the former Soviet Union and many other parts of the world. Go and watch the movie then do something about it. However, Moodysson is still a skillful enough director to make this more than just a depressing polemic.The acting is as near faultless as you will find anywhere. The music, as in all this director's films, perfectly matches the action. It is an important film and it has an important message but it still works as art and as a movie. It's very hard to write a meaningful review. See it.