Lilja 4-ever (2002)

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 ...
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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.

This film screened as part of the SXSW 2003 film festival in Austin, Texas.
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Lilya is a teenage Russian girl whose best friend is a glue-sniffing street urchin, Volodya, and whose mother has recently run away to live in America, abandoning her. Eager to start a new life, Lilya is excited when her new boyfriend, Andrei, asks her to move to Sweden, only to find a similar dismal existence there.

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De 16 jaar oude Lilja leeft in een arme wijk in een stad van de voormalige Sovjet-Unie. Haar vriend is de jonge jongen Volodja. Samen hangen ze wat rond in de buurt. Ze fantaseren over hoe het leven voor hun gemakkelijker kan worden. Op een dag is er een sprankje hoop als Lilja verliefd wordt op Andrej. Hij vraagt haar om mee te gaan naar Zweden, waar zij samen een nieuw leven kunnen gaan opbouwen.

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