Lilja 4-ever

Directed by Lukas Moodysson.
Written by: Lukas Moodysson
Produced by: Lars Jönsson
Memfis Film Sweden 2002 Colour
Genre: Drama/ Soundtrack
Local distributor: Sonet Film

16-year-old Lilja lives in a dreary and poor suburb somewhere in the former Soviet Union. She dreams about a better life. One day her mother moves to the USA along with her new man, and Lilja is promised to be able to join them soon. But as no letter from her mother arrives, Lilja realizes that she’s been abandoned. She's forced to move to a small dilapidated flat with no electricity or heating. Heartbroken and without any money Lilja becomes more and more desperate. Her only friend is the 11-year-old boy Volodja. Together they travel around the area and fantasize about how one could make life easier to live. One day hope arrives when Lilja falls in love with Andrei. He asks her to follow him to Sweden to start a new life. Little Volodja gets jealous and suspicious, but Lilja packs her bags. Suddenly she's sitting on a plane on its way to Sweden - not knowing what awaits her there.

I can say one thing - Lukas Moodysson is like a sign of quality - it's not a question if the film is great or not, it's a question of how great it is. Unlike Fucking Åmål and Tillsammans this is a rather dark film, but you still recognize his style - and it confirm once again that a Lukas Moodysson film isn't like any other film. Even though you can't read my complete review yet - every Norwegian newspaper, magazine, radio and TV-program with respect for themselves have of course reviewed Lilja 4-ever - with not one single negative review this time! Almost too good to be true? Well, it's not very strange. Lilja 4-ever is a very politically correct film, and hard to say anything negative about because it's about such a real and important issue. It's a typical film that film lovers love because we love to see all kinds of films, not only those with the standard happy ending, while the normal mainstream audience won't that easily go to see this film because they want to be entertained, they don't want to have to think and reflect and leave the cinema hall sad. That's quite understandable, and is also shown by a massive media interest that isn't reflected in number of audience - and not a full-scale premiere here in Norway. Smaller cinemas will have to wait a while before they get the film. This is sad of course, but it's just the way it is. I'm happy that Lukas finally shows us this side of himselves, that he can also make films he knows isn't for everyone. But he certainly made a film for his true fans... for true film lovers...

Artiom Bogutjarskij
Oksana Akinsjina

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