Lilya 4-Ever

The subject matter is really harsh, however there's a tenderness to the way Moodysson approaches the protagonist, all the while without sacrificing the realism. Lead Oksana Akinshina provides a captivating performance, and the even younger Artyom Bogucharskiy is also convincing. The film is notable for showing how neglect and abuse stack up in various (interconnected) forms thus trapping the protagonist; that being said, the final part is weaker, and the metaphysics are a little too on the nose.

idk; i guess it does a good job portraying a sad story... i just wasn't really affected by it quite so much as others were.

Brutal and harsh. The camera work gives it a documentary or reality TV feel that makes the injustice and darkness of the story stick to you in the most haunting of ways. It's not easy to shake. An extremely bleak movie depicting a reality that devastatingly isn't fictional in our world.

the scene of her mother leaving, I died crying.

A 16-year-old finds herself alone in the world and tries to get by. Subtitled in English.

Cruda, grafica y potente pelicula sobre la vida de la joven Lilyan en la pobreza y la soledad.

Do not watch this movie if you're in a good mood. Excellent movie, but one I will never watch again.

This movie was truly upsetting and I cried for days after watching it. I wanted to give Lilya a big hug. I recommend this movie to everyone who can handle it. I still think about this movie from time to time and it had a really big impact on me.

I'm going to call this an experimental film. Not for any innovations in form or genre, not for some exquisite, complicated purpose, but for its relentless stubbornness to never, under any circumstance, show any signs of light through the darkness. We have all seen movies rejoicing and thriving in getting us lower and lower into an abyss of misery and suffering, we have all seen proudly depressing movies, but I, personally, have never seen a movie refusing time and again to let go of the darkness. And this is not a good thing. Lilya 4-ever is, at the end of the day, gratuitously dark. It pretty much made its point thirty minutes into the script, but then it just kept overselling it, just for the sake of showing us that it's gritty and balsy. Good job, Lukas Moodysson, you are edgy as hell and you did manage to be so in a story that's more than coherent, if a little too exaggerated for a film with cinéma vérité aspirations. The soundtrack is overdone, the dream sequences a little too... on the nose and the acting isn't even that good except for lead Oksana Akinshina. On top of that, I really don't like a movie that makes me want to cry in the shower every twenty minutes without giving me a little hope at the end. I'm sorry, but ultimately experimental does not equate to good.

Lilya 4 ever is well shot and the central character is played by a wonderful actor. In fact I cannot fault much in in terms of direction or acting in this film. However it is about desperately hard circumstances in the former Soviet Union and human trafficking. The story is bleak and unrelenting; offering just more tragedy in an interesting and well shot picture. However I don't feel I have taken anything away from this film than a sad impression.