Lilya 4-Ever ( Lilja 4-ever ) ( Lilya Forever )

Lilya 4-Ever (DVD) (*)

Out of Stock

Original Title: Lilja 4-ever
Alternate Title: Lilya Forever
Screened, competed or awarded at:
European Film Awards
Stockholm Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Danish ( Subtitles )
English ( Subtitles )
Finnish ( Subtitles )
Norwegian ( Subtitles )
Russian ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
Swedish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Sweden ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
104 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Biographies
Interactive Menu
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 2002 and produced in:
Denmark ( Scandinavia, Iceland )
Russia ( Russia, Eastern Europe )
Sweden ( Scandinavia, Iceland )

Directed By:
Lukas Moodysson

Written By:
Lukas Moodysson

Actors:
Oksana Akinshina ..... Lilja
Artyom Bogucharsky ..... Volodya
Lyubov Agapova ..... Lilja's Mother
Liliya Shinkaryova ..... Aunt Anna
Elina Benenson ..... Natasha
Pavel Ponomaryov ..... Andrei
Tomasz Neuman ..... Witek (as Tomas Neumann)
Anastasiya Bedredinova ..... Neighbor
Tõnu Kark ..... Sergei
Nikolai Bentsler ..... Natasha's Boyfriend
Aleksander Dorosjkevitch ..... Friend #1
Yevgeni Gurov ..... Friend #2 (as Jevgeni Gurov)
Aleksandr Sokolenko ..... Friend #3
Margo Kostelina ..... Cashier #1
Veronika Kovtun ..... Cashier #2

Synopsis:

A teenager abandoned by her family slips into a downward spiral of sex and degradation in this frank drama from Sweden. Lilya (Oksana Akinshina) is a 16-year-old girl growing up in poverty in the former Soviet Union. Lilya's mother (Lyubov Agapova) is moving to the United States with her new boyfriend, and Lilya has been told she'll be coming with them. However, at the last minute Lilya is informed she'll be staying behind with her aunt Anna (Liliya Shinkaryova), and she'll be joining her mother later on. Anna immediately takes over the apartment Lilya shared with her mother, and moves her niece into a much smaller (and dirtier) flat several blocks away. For the most part left on her own, Lilya spends much of her time with her best friend, Natasha (Elina Benenson), and comes to the rescue of Volodya (Artiom Bogucharski), a suicidal 14-year-old boy who has been thrown out of his home and has a serious problem with alcohol and drugs. One night at a nightclub, Natasha meets a man who is willing to pay her for sex; when her father finds the money, Natasha claims it belongs to Lilya, and the story soon spreads that Lilya is a prostitute. When Lilya learns that her mother has no intention of bringing her to the United States, she becomes despondent and begins sleeping with men for money. Not long after taking up the sex trade she meets Andrei (Pavel Ponomaryov), who promises her a better and easier life if she'll come to Sweden with him. However, Lilya learns the hard way that there's no truth in Andrei's words as she is subjected to the lowest and most degrading levels of the sex-for-hire business.

Although it appears on the surface to be a relentlessly grim story of sexual and spiritual degradation, the third feature from Swedish wunderkind Lukas Moodysson retains the gentle humor and unaffected humanity of his previous features, Show Me Love and Together. The Dickensian tale of an Eastern European teen left to rot in the decaying tenements of the former Soviet Union, Lilya 4-Ever mixes grimy hyperrealism with flamboyant flights of fancy and leavens its politically charged subtext with quietly compelling storytelling. The dramatic success of the film rests with star Oksana Akinshina, veteran of precisely one previous feature. Luckily for Moodysson and his audience, the young actress proves more than capable of embodying both universal teen ennui and a horrifyingly specific form of bruised innocence. Under the intimate watch of cinematographer Ulf Brantas' handheld camera, Akinshina brings Lilya to life through the insouciant cast of her mouth, the defiant flash of her smile, and the quiet gravity of her suffering. The camera loves her, and the audience can't help but do the same, which makes her slow slide from idleness to exploitation all the more painful. Indeed, even as her eventual fate becomes painfully obvious, Lilya inspires dramatic tension. The film's final act is the emotional equivalent of a slasher film in which the audience screams encouragement to the heroine no matter how blindly she wanders into danger. Co-star Artiom Bogucharski, too, deserves mention for the mournful intensity and unexpected joy his character brings to Moodysson's tale. Even after Lilya has moved far outside of Volodya's orbit, the director gives these spiritual orphans a powerful sibling bond. An interesting companion piece to Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, in that it's equally calculating, nearly as stylized, but far more emotionally true, Lilya 4-Ever confirms Moodysson's position as one of his generation's most keen observers of both the personal and the political.

Sixteen-year-old Lilja and her only friend, the young boy Volodja, live in Estonia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej, who is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 02 December, 2009.

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