Lilja 4-ever (2002) (Sweden)

[hengcs]

Director: Lukas Moodysson
Cast: Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharsky

Hmmm ... I can't seem to locate any full review of this film in this forum (except listing) ... so pardon me for starting a new thread ... Anyway, I have just watched it ...

Initially, I was thinking ... another film about teenager being forced into prostitution?! ... not a new theme ... so what could the director do to make it a really good film ... and at the end, I had to agree it is a very good film ...
;)


What I like ...
There are quite a number of very commendable scenes ...
-- I especially like the second time when the young boy sat with Lilja and talked to her again ... the lines went something like that ... "You will be dead for eternity ... but you only live for a moment ..."
* ... WOW ... and you think about the title "... 4 ever ..." (i.e., eternity?!) ... and her etching on the bench "... Lilja 4-ever ..." *
also ... since she didnt leave when people spat on her then, why should she now ...
-- I also like the scene when everything started reversing ... oh no ... don't tell me it was one of those films that nothing had happened and it was just a figment of imagination again ...
* watch it and you will know what actually happened ... *
-- I also think the film managed to capture the relationship between the girl and the boy very well ...
* by the way, do you see a parallel of her mother leaving her and she leaving him?! *
-- Finally, it is good that the film did not become too melodramatic, but told many real life plights as they were ...


What may some people not like ...
-- Well, to be critical, the plot is not too novel ... although it has a nice take ...


Conclusion:
-- I recommend the film ... go watch ... ;)
While the story is not exactly new, it is very well filmed ...


PS: The DVD also has two shorts/appeals from UNICEF and Amnesty International.

[Howard Schumann]

LILYA 4-EVER

Directed by Lukas Moodysson (2002)

"Childhood is greatly sacrificed in the world today. Children are very much the weak link of the chain. If you want to study the world you should study the most vulnerable parts of the world."- Lukas Moodysson

According to director Lukas Moodysson (Show Me Love, Together), heaven is where you jump around with wings on your back and play basketball all day. On earth, however, it's another story. Ask Lilya (Oksana Akanshina), the main protagonist in Moodysson's powerful but despairing new Russian-language feature, Lilya 4-Ever. The Lars Von Trier and Dogme 95 influence is quite apparent in the exaggerated use of the hand-held camera and the film's portrayal of women as victims of abusive men.

16-year old Lilya (Oksana Akinshina) lives in a small, unnamed city in the Soviet Union. When her mother abandons her and moves to the United States, an aunt puts her up in a run-down flat then refuses to have anything more to do with her. Her only friend is young Volodya (Artyom Bogucharsky) who lives on the streets and attaches himself to Lilya. They hang around together and fantasize about a better life. Her only hope for survival lies in selling her body. Surprisingly, Lilya falls in love with a young good-looking guy named Andrei who appears to be honest and caring. When she follows him to Sweden to start a new life, however, the ugly realities become all too apparent.

The performances by the young actors are outstanding and Mr. Moodysson again displays his talent for depicting teenagers in a very real and natural way. The film is shown from Lilya's point of view and Oksana's ability to portray a wide range of emotions allows the audience to identify with her plight and ride the waves along with her.

Lilya 4-Ever effectively illuminates the worldwide problem of child prostitution and is not afraid to tackle hard issues without any attempt at sugarcoating. I feel, however, that it would have been more effective if Moodysson didn't insist on being so relentlessly hopeless and sensational. The film does not explore the humanity of the characters but uses them only as props to drive home a particular point of view. The characters either are disgusting old men, ruthless exploiters, unfeeling and selfish parents or relatives, or innocent victims.

Mr. Moodysson has brought a very real problem to light but does not show us any way out. Indeed, he seems to be saying that since adults are abusive and God won't listen to our prayers, the only hope left is to sign up to play basketball with our wings on. In spite of a sincere effort, I found Lilya 4-Ever to be predictable and the ending pretentious and sophomoric.

GRADE: C

[Chris Knipp]

This must just have been released on DVD? It was not previously available, and I wasn't able to see it in a theater. Netflix now lists it.

Glad you wrote this and wonder why nobody had written a detailed review of it here up till now. I share your inability to relate to films that are "relentlessly hopeless and sensational," and that makes me wonder if I even want to watch this, though all the raves made me put it on my To See list.

Is the depiction of women as victims of abusive men a characteristic of Dogme films?

[Howard Schumann]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
This must just have been released on DVD? It was not previously available, and I wasn't able to see it in a theater. Netflix now lists it.

Glad you wrote this and wonder why nobody had written a detailed review of it here up till now. I share your inability to relate to films that are "relentlessly hopeless and sensational," and that makes me wonder if I even want to watch this, though all the raves made me put it on my To See list.

Is the depiction of women as victims of abusive men a characteristic of Dogme films? I actually think it's been around for a while, though I'm not sure what its DVD release date was. I saw it in 2002 at the Vancouver Film Festival and that is when this review is from. I think you ought to see it and judge for yourself. You know that sometimes we don't agree so you may have a different take on it. I haven't of course seen that many dogme films but the one's I have seen showed women as victims of abusive men.

[Chris Knipp]

I figured maybe that was the case--that you'd seen it at the festival or something and were releasing an earlier review. It was very hard or maybe impossible to see in theaters here, and until recently it was not available on DVD. Netflix says "Exclusive on Netflix," which may mean it's new on DVD now. I know we disagree often enough, but as I mentioned, I find, and this is increasingly true, that my appetite for the downbeat or depressing in films is diminishing--which could deter me from watching this highly praised work. I liked "Together" and it wasn't really downbeat at all.

Von Trier's films seem universally focussed on abuse of women, but I don't think focusing on that is a tenet or rule of the Dogme code. In fact the Dogme 95 "Vow of Chastity" (http://www.dogme95.dk/the_vow/vow.html) as one writer on the web at "filmmaking.net" put it "aimed at taking away the reliance on technology and post-production, and returning the art to a more pure level," rather than at dealing with a certain subject matter. From what I gather, but I don't know what the official dogme films are or how many there are, the whole movement has had a wide influence but has become rather vague now, with "certificates" no longer being given out to brand films as officially dogme.

[Chris Knipp]

Lukas Moodysson: Lilja 4-Ever
(2002: Netflix DVD Nov. 2005)

Review by Chris Knipp

A new neorealism?

In Lilja 4-Ever, Lukas Moodysson presents a grim new reality: human trafficking in young women in Eastern Europe. Depending on their luck, these hapless females can be turned into slaves, or prostitutes, or wives. In Ira Sach's recent Forty Shades of Blue (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=486) a Memphis music producer (Rip Torn) has a beautiful young Russian wife (Dina Korzun) -- we never learn how he got her. Moodysson focuses on pretty blonde Russian sixteen-year-old Lilja (Oksana Akinshina), whose parents horribly and inexplicably choose to go to America leaving her behind. She is quickly swept up and shipped to Sweden to be a prostitute, cheerful and completely innocent of what is going to happen to her.

We begin in a bleak contemporary Russia where people talk in telegraphic sentences and the only hint of value and belief is a chromo Lilja keeps on the wall and says the Lord's Prayer to. Her only friend is a childish fourteen-year-old boy, Volodya (Artyom Bogucharsky), himself an outcast, who's plain and sweet and cares only for her. In leaving the country she abandons him as her mother had abandoned her. In both cases the child left behind pretends indifference and then is devastated. Volodya commits suicide with two bottles of pills he had found in the destitute apartment Lilya was forced into by her aunt when her mother left.

The point is clearly made: nobody cares about these kids.

Hoberman wrote that this pushed out Gaspar Noë's Irréversible for the most downbeat movie of the year. But these are two very different kinds of work. Moodysson isn't playing events for their shock value as Noë plays his -- not quite, anyway. There are two elements that balance out the relentless sadness of Lilja's little tale. In addition to being very pretty, she has a lightness about her. And when Volodya reappears as an angel with wings in sequences that comfort the girl, the director introduces an air of grace and purity -- a dream of the real childhood these kids never had -- that offsets some of the nastiness. Otherwise there would be a danger that the filmmaking might seem as brutal as the actions of the human traffickers. In fact, that danger lingers anyway.

Someone has said that Lilja shouldn't be so pretty, that it's hard to believe her mother would leave behind such a good-looking girl. This is odd logic, and in fact the girl's beauty is what makes her ultimate fate believable, if not inevitable. Those who have a lovely exterior are doomed to a certain amount of objectification under the best of circumstances. Here, Lilja never gets a chance to show what's inside.

Moodysson's style is linked with the minimalist, defiant Dogme school of filmmaking. It's a long long way from the humanistic visions of post-WWII Italian neorealismo, which also dealt with the downtrodden and the hopeless, but in films that sang and made one weep. As one saw in his cheerful Seventies commune comedy Together, Moodysson is great with children, and Akinshina and Bogucharsky are wonderful in this film. He might have found more beauty and richer human detail in Lilja's story. For me it went by too quickly, and it almost left one wondering if it really matters. That can't be what the director has in mind. But others say that Lilja 4-ever can sing and make them weep, too. If that's possible, it must be the angel-Volodya who makes it so.

_______________
Posted on Chris Knipp website. (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=495)

[Howard Schumann]

You saw a whole lot more in this film than I did and expressed it beautifully. Good review.

[Chris Knipp]

Well thank you for the comment. It is a very painful movie but it has beautiful moments. I don't enjoy it and won't want to watch it again but I can very well see why so many people find it important. I think it is important. I'm sorry I missed it when it was new, but it just wasn't distributed properly in this country I don't think.