It is hard to sit through writer/director Lukas Moodysson's "Lilya 4-Ever," the Swedish entry into the Academy Awards.
At first glance, "Lilya" is nothing more than a depressing story of a young girl forced into prostitution. It hardly seems fit for the Academy Awards, seeing as how Hollywood thrives on happy endings.
The film shows the inescapable trap that many children are pushed into each year. "Lilya," now playing at the Madstone Theaters, shocks and angers viewers with a depressing and frighteningly believable story.
Moodysson is an up-and-coming Swedish director whose previous films have focused on the complex lives of teenagers. "Lilya" is no exception.
Moodysson has received much praise for his work, including that of film legend Ingmar Bergman. Lilya, played by Russian actress Oksana Akinshina, is a 16-year-old girl abandoned by her mother in favor of a new life in America. Lilya is forced out of her home and into a run-down apartment, absent of heat and electricity.
Steadily, her life begins to fall apart. She drops out of school, is betrayed by her best friends and violently teased and then raped by a gang of teenage boys. The only comfort in her life comes from her 11-year-old soul mate, Volodya (Artiom Bogucharskij), who has been kicked out of his home by his alcoholic father.
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"We live in a culture where you can buy anything," Moodysson said in a news release. "My film is about that world. I'm not blaming the poor countries, but the rich ones who exploit them."
The film opens with Lilya standing on a bridge, deciding if she wants to jump and then quickly flashes back to how she got to that point. The threat of suicide lingers through the movie as Lilya's will and strength are constantly questioned.
The film shows the destruction of the once thriving Soviet world. In one scene Volodya takes Lilya to an abandoned Soviet shipyard, formerly magnificent and now a haunting picture of the glory that it once was.
Besides this, shots of poor cities, decaying roads and run down apartment buildings are focal in the film. The only money in the unnamed town where the movie takes place is at the market, which is stockpiled with liquor and running low on bread.
"Lilya 4-Ever" gets its point across and does so in an amazing way. It would be hard to watch "Lilya 4-Ever" and not be moved and disturbed by it.
