Lilja 4-ever (2002)

Lilja 4-ever: Directed by Lukas Moodysson. With Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharskiy, Lyubov Agapova, Liliya Shinkaryova. Sixteen-year-old Lilja and her only friend, the young boy Volodja, live in Russia, 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.

“Iu0026#39;ve said it before and Iu0026#39;ll say it again: the best movies never get the attention that they deserve. Take for instance this u0026quot;Lilja 4-everu0026quot;. It has never been in any large movie theater and is only shown on festivals or on specialized TV stations that broadcast more non-commercial movies. Thatu0026#39;s also how I got to see it. I knew about this movie, but had never been able to give it a try, until two days ago when it was finally shown on national television.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLilja is a 16 year old Estonian girl who will move with her mother and her motheru0026#39;s new boyfriend to the USA. But when itu0026#39;s about time to leave, her mother tells her that she canu0026#39;t come with them right now. She will have to stay for a while, following them to the USA afterward and until then her mother will send her money. But once they are gone, it quickly gets clear that they have abandoned Lilja and donu0026#39;t want to see her ever again. She doesnu0026#39;t really have anyone to take care of her and has only one real friend, the young boy Volodja. Completely out of money, she decides to sell the only thing that she has left, her body. She picks up older men in a disco until one day she meets Andrej, a nice boy of her own age. She falls deeply in love with him and when he tells her that she can come with him to Sweden to find a well-payed job and a beautiful apartment so she can start an entire new life far away of all the misery, she is convinced that for once and for all her luck has changed…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJust after I saw the movie, I went to bed to get some sleep, but the entire movie just kept spooking through my head all the time, keeping me awake for hours. Even now, Iu0026#39;m still thinking about the horrible faith of that poor girl. That has a lot to do with the excellent acting of course. Oksana Akinshina is a complete stranger to me, but her performance was so incredibly good and so believable, that you might easily forget that you are watching a movie instead of a real life documentary. Artyom Bogucharsky as Volodya, Pavel Ponomaryov as Andrej, Liliya Shinkaryova as Liljau0026#39;s aunt,… None of them is famous or has played in many other movies, but one by one, they play their roles as if they have never done anything else in their entire lives.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Lilja 4-everu0026quot; isnu0026#39;t exactly a movie that will make you happy. I would even say that its story will leave you behind completely devastated, but will also keep you thinking about Lilja for days after youu0026#39;ve seen it. Thatu0026#39;s what happened to me and thatu0026#39;s something that I havenu0026#39;t experienced too often yet. If you are strong enough to cope with the hard reality, then you should definitely give this movie a try. In my opinion there is only one appropriate rating for a movie like this one and that is 10/10!!!”