Lilya 4 Ever Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

harrowing

This is a documentary, to watch when looking for facts, not fun.

It is well made but I found it too sad to be enjoyable.

It reminded me of just how despicably human beings can behave towards someone who is vulnerable.

It left me feeling that I wished I had not watched it.

Not one for the lads on a Saturday night..

I was initially dubious that this would interest me, but thought I'd give it a try anyway. It seemed to have something to say from the description, and it did!

The tale is sad and upsetting from the beginning, but it kept me hooked wanting to find out what 'happened'.

I'd recommend this film to anyone looking for something outside the Blockbusters world - a 'real' tale of life..

[Highly rated reviewer]

Bleak but brilliant drama.

A harrowing but very moving film, Lilya 4 Ever shows how, that even in the most extreme circumstances the human spirit will find some shred of hope to cling onto.

Lilya is a spirited young girl living in a bleak part of Russia with no real prospects of her life improving. Like most bored teenagers she spends most of her time drinking and hanging around the grim estate where she lives.

Then her single parent mother abandons her leaving her to the tender mercies of her grouchy Aunt who promptly evicts Lilya, moving her into squalid flat vacated by a recently deceased old man. Then her situation really takes a turn for the worst.

Lilya finds solace in the friendship of a young boy who lives on the same estate who is equally disaffected, bearing the brunt of his fathers alcohol induced rages. It is this relationship which Lilya clings to, both its reality and its memory as her life tips over the precipice and as she is constantly betrayed by those in whom she places her trust.

Brilliantly acted by the mainly young cast, especially Oksana Akinshira as Lilya, the film has an almost documentary feel about it, so much so that at times it is almost unbearable to watch. But in amongst the despair and Nihilism there is a beauty of sorts and it is that that prevents the film from descending into a sadistic tirade.

shockingly informative and heart rendingly beautiful

the contrast of beauty and bleakness, innocence and the cruelty of adults who have lost touch with their inner child, is at once compelling and horrifying. this abuse of children really happens, this darkness of the human condition is still rife despite the media, governments and powers that be. watch this movie and be part of changing this reality.

Superbly made and acted film

This is a very powerful and moving film, all the more so as it is based on a mixture of true stories. Having said that, it is superbly made and acted with mesmerising performances from Oksana Akinshina as Lilja and Artyom Bogucharsky as Volodya.

It brings home how cruel life has become for some in post-Soviet countries and flags up to those who were unaware the cruel and sordid business of trafficking young women.

This is a significant film not just artistically but because its impact goes going well beyond cinematic boundaries and highlights a significant issue of international organised crime. Not easy to watch but it does leave a big impression afterwards.

Gritty realism

Like a fly on the wall documentary. Sad but gripping. Even beautiful in parts. Oksana Akinshina is excellent as Lilya. The film stays in your mind for days.

Not exactly a good laugh but

Imagine the scenario. You've seen 'Together', had a good laugh about its satirical swipe at empty-headed idealists, so you get out'Lily 4 ever', woo your newly found love home for a quiet night in by the fire, and settle down to some intelligent but lightish film watching.

If you miraculaously get passed the passion-klling brutality of the film and find that she is partial to intense pathos and feelings of helplessness, your budding relationship is going places.

In the right place at the right time, 'Lily4 ever' is more than worth the agony it produces in you as you watch. The genuine heartfelt warmth of the Lily and Valadov friendship only serves to highlight the relentless brutality of the rest of the film. The bleak tenements, the heartless exploitation and abuse all make us care too much about Lily as she is completely defeated by the life that has been set out for her. Oksana Akanshina totally inhabits the role to make this all possible, going through various guises of boastful, defiant, broken, indignant, disgusted, desperate, without ever appearing in the least bit contrived.

Moodyson's great triumph is that he has not only produced an utterly different film from his previous two, but he also leaves you outraged that such trafficking can be allowed to exist in any society.

Excellent, but relentlessly bleak.

We watched this early on New Year's Eve - it sort of killed the party mood ...

Set on an East European (Russian?) estate, poverty, boredom, exploitation and abandonment, make even the smallest of victories seem significant. However, the fact that neither of the main protagonists are willing to give up their hopes of a better life, leaves them vulnerable to exploitation.

The two leads are excellent and really make you care about what happens to them. This is a shame, because very little good ever does or will. The plot is relentlessly bleak but the warmth of the characters make the film incredibly compelling. I'd strongly recommend it, if you can stomach watching the horrors that can be inflicted on the vulnerable.

Bad traffic makes good viewing

This is a superbly shot film, with it's hand held jumpy movement adding to the sense of despair and lack of security that is evident for the duration of the feature.

Lilya and her good friend Volodya live a pretty bleak existence 'somewhere in the former Soviet Union'. Bunking off school, taking drugs, being abandoned by your mother or kicked out of home by your father are all aspects we see the two characters - no more than young teenagers - deal with.

Moodyssn creates harsh images of despair and we share the children's hope that they can find a better live. Without out giving the game away it is a futile hope... but a lesson in the perservance and lives of those less-fortunate and for that alone, crucial viewing.

One of the most important films ever made

Although this may not be your average Saturday Night family entertainment piece and some viewers may find the content unsettling and distressing, this is movie-making fashioned to make you consider, realise and understand what most would otherwise neglect. Bleak as it may be, Lukas Moodysson’s film about international sex trafficking is, in no uncertain terms, a modern masterpiece.

His unobtrusive camera reflects the savage coming of age of a teenage girl growing up in a post-cold war ex-Soviet Bloc country gripped with poverty and coming to terms with modernisation. Oksana Akinshina depicts Lilya’s descent from youthful optimism to the embodiment of manipulated consumerism that is enforced prostitution, with a honed precision that breaks the heart.

Her story is the darkside of capitalism on display. For every Roman Abramovich that has prospered, millions suffer in squalor deprived of jobs, food and opportunities. It is no coincidence that the UN shows this film to their emissaries travelling to Eastern Europe.

The power of Lilya 4 Ever is that the audience needs little convincing that her fiction is a reality for thousands out there. Everybody should be made to watch to it.