skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Film: Lilya 4-Ever
Release date: 22nd September 2003
Certificate: 18
Running time: 109 mins
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharsky, Lyubov Agapova, Liliya Shinkaryova, Elina Benenson
Genre: Crime/Drama
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Sweden/Denmark
Lilya 4-Ever is the third film from Swedish director Lukas Moodysson, and is the story of one girl’s belief that she is destined for happiness within an area of the former Soviet Union where the prospect of prostitution and sex trafficking are forever looming. The narrative of a girl's descent into prostitution may be a clichéd narrative of world cinema but it doesn't stop Lilya 4-Ever from being all the more harrowing.
Opening to the sound of industrial death metal, we are introduced to Lilya (played by Oksana Akinshina), who wanders bruised and disorientated, lost and alone, in a foreign city. Coming across a bridge, she prepares to jump off onto the busy highway below in an act of suicide. Fading to black, the film resumes three months earlier in the former Soviet Union to an impoverished area of Estonia.
Lilya is elated at the prospect of moving to America with her mother and her new ‘boyfriend’. Unfortunately, after a family meeting, it transpires that the mother is to move off to the US without Lilya, who will be left under the care of a cruel and seemingly uncaring aunt. Left on her own, Lilya is forced into coming up with a way to support herself, which comes in the form of prostitution.
Forming a friendship with Volodya, a local boy and son of an abusive alcoholic father, Lilya manages to maintain her composure as she makes enough money to live independently. After forming a relationship with a Swedish gentleman, Lilya is asked to move to Sweden with him. It seems as if her dreams are finally becoming true…
From the harrowing opening sequence, it is clear that Lilya 4-Ever is not going to be an easy film to watch. The film is based on real-life events where 16 year old Danguole Rasalaite jumped off a bridge after being transported from her home in Lithuania to Sweden under the allusion that she was going to have a job, but in reality was pimped out and sexually abused upon a daily basis. She died three days later after jumping, and her story was pieced together by three letters she was carrying at the time.
For director Lukas Moodysson, it marks a startling change. His debut film, Show Me Love, out grossed Titanic at the box office in his native Sweden, and his last picture, Together, was an oddball hippy comedy of sorts with dark satirical undertones. By contrast, Lilya 4-Ever is a fairytale set within a gritty urban area. There are monsters and angels, an evil aunt, a loyal and dependable friend, and even a handsome prince. Lilya is effectively a princess who believes unquestionably in this narrative that her luck is destined to change, dreaming that her prince charming will come and whisk her far away from the misery that surrounds her. It will, of course, lead to her downfall, and the audience knows this, but the film’s predictability only adds to its tragedy.
The more innocent scenes between Lilya and Volodya form the core of the story and feel reminiscent of the character interactions seen in the films of Shane Meadows and Ken Loach. That is, two characters living in impoverishment but still finding happiness in their lives through their friendship. Lilya herself played by Oksana Akinshina can, at times, appear to be a spoiled brat, as she flaunts her success in the faces of friends and neighbours, and you can sometimes forget that she is just a kid.
Next to the Millennium trilogy, however, Lilya 4-Ever illuminates Sweden’s misogynist undercurrents. Less critical, and more an outright condemnation, Moodysson is on the warpath against his native homeland on this front. Sometimes, the film feels as if it is going too far - the film’s Ramstein opening, for example, is a particularly bombastical approach (you may ask why a Swedish film would open to German death metal). Though it does add an element of confusion, you do wonder how Lilya would have any conception of this kind of music.
The ugliest moments of the movie come in the form of a series of montage sequences, in which we witness, from Lilya’s perspective, a parade of older men raping her. The sheer number of men is sickening, the whole experience invasive and completely without passion, like the audience is being raped themselves. It is no understatement to say that these scenes may just be enough to put you off sex for life. Even after the film has finished, these sequences will linger, as you realize that someone somewhere on this planet will be experiencing this horror for real.
Lilya 4-Ever, is not for the faint of heart. Though there are moments of tenderness to balance the unremitting horror and overwhelming sense of hopelessness, the film is very angry, and as Lilya is buoyed on by delusional dreams is to the audience’s own distress. It is certainly a hard film to recommend, as any film that deals with child prostitution will be, but then this is a subject that cannot be left out of minds. CPH
Film: Lilya 4-Ever
Release date: 22nd September 2003
Certificate: 18
Running time: 109 mins
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharsky, Lyubov Agapova, Liliya Shinkaryova, Elina Benenson
Genre: Crime/Drama
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Sweden/Denmark
Written and directed by Lukas Moodysson, Lilya 4-Ever focuses on isolation, poverty and the natural human desire to want to better our circumstances. Set ambiguously “somewhere which used to be the Soviet Union,” Moodysson aims to portray the story of a teenage girl born without luck or privilege. Lilya must learn to survive abandonment and poverty and use desperate means to gain her escape, with tragic consequences.
Lilya lives on a rundown estate block with her single mother, who we learn has secured passage to America, but does not take her only daughter with her. Lilya is left to the care of a sole Aunt who does not look kindly upon her new responsibility. Neither the school, social services, nor her friend Natascha provide support or kindness, and with food and basic amenities running out, Lilya turns desperately to prostitution as a means to survive.
She reluctantly strikes up a friendship with a troubled younger boy called Volodya in a part maternal, part romantic relationship which is to be only constant in the short segment of her life we are invited into.
While looking for her next client, hope arrives in the form of Andrei, a handsome suitor who is on vacation in her town. Expressing desire to spend time with Lilya, it seems hope and a chance at love has come at last, and Andrei soon offers a chance to escape the cycle of poverty by smuggling her with him to Sweden.
However, Andrei has not told Lilya everything, and she is soon to learn that her escape from pain will not be as easy as she had at first hoped…
Oksana Akinshina convincingly portrays the naivety of a teenage girl with all the bittersweet emotion from learning how adults can betray and hurt others. First her mother, then Natascha, and later Andrei all force Lilya to mature prematurely when they hurt her, and Akinshina realistically demonstrates the ability of people backed into a corner in learning how to survive by whatever means necessary. First reacting with anger and shock, and later with a dull numbing acceptance that these are the cards she has been dealt.
In dealing with the issue of child poverty, illegal smuggling, prostitution and sexual assault, Moodysson rarely offers a break from seemingly unrelenting misery. The film offers an insight into a country whose socialist politics were once championed as an ideal for the people, yet whose people were the first to be forgotten when capitalism took over.
The lighting is often grey and miserable, the buildings devoid of luxury and in disrepair, reflecting the bleakness of the character’s situation. Lilya’s story is believable, the people who do her damage equally so - the film, at times, even seeming like more of a documentary or biography than creative entertainment.
There are often subtle references to current and past Russian culture, such as the teenagers’ obsession with hardcore techno music and the latest sportswear, which has recently spurned a black market for forgeries in Russia, or the discarded party propaganda, addressing comrades of a distant time.
We are also introduced, briefly, to an elderly neighbour, and hear the recently deceased owner of Lilya’s flat being described mockingly as a “war hero.” Lilya and her friends’ negative attitudes to both of these characters demonstrate that despite the sympathy generated by us for Lilya’s plight, she in turn does not offer the same in turn, highlighting the human tendency to be inward looking, and the ability of youth to dismiss the past.
Although doubtlessly a realistic insight into life at the lowest point in society’s order, Lilya 4-Ever does not offer much more on top of documentary-style heartstring tugging. This film is ideal for those interested in learning more of what is a reality for many poor and desperate unwanted teenagers, not only in Russia but in many parts of the world today as the gap between rich and poor widens. However, this a true to life tragedy, and there is little to distract from the repetitive hammer blows that this young girl receives.
Unlike Moodysson’s previous work, Together, which had delightfully intricate characterisation, Lilya 4-Ever has little to offer in analysis of relationships between people, as Lilya does not have any successful relationships to speak of. Her main friendship with Volodya is in one sense a touching demonstration of childhood innocence, and the strong bond which can develop in desperate times, but they are both children, and due to this, the conversation itself never evolves to an adult level. There is a beauty in this, of course; however, this film is one of emotion and sadness, and not one for those who are expecting the witty exchanges and character variety that Together provided.
Moodysson has a talent for reflecting the culture and essence of a certain time and drawing out emotion from the location and the people. However, he is so consistent in this that you should not expect respite from the themes he is passionate about expressing. Definitely worth its initial critical acclaim in so much as being a realistically moving plot and shot well, but not one for the emotionally delicate or those prone to depression. AT
