Lilya 4-Ever

Sweden, 2002, 105 min Director Lukas Moodysson Producer Lars Jönsson Screenwriter Lukas Moodysson Cinematographer Ulf Brantås Editors Michal Leszczylowski, Bernhard Winkler Music Nathan Larson Cast Oksana Akinshina, Artiom Bogucharskij, Pavel Ponomarev, Elina Beninson, Ljubov Agapova Print Source: Swedish Film Institute / Svenska Filminstitutet Sales Agent: Trust Film Sales Close Print Page		Superstar director Lukas Moodysson (Show Me Love, Together) takes his audience on a harsh voyage through rocky emotions in Lilya 4-Ever. A massive hit upon its recent release in Scandinavia, the film finds Moodysson moving away from the political and personal problems of 70s Sweden to the harsh reality of present-day life in the former Soviet Union. Having been abandoned by her mother, 16-year-old Lilya's (Oksana Akinshina, Sisters, VIFF 01) life is miserable. In a derelict Eastern bloc city dominated by poverty, an empty military base and glue-sniffing kids, the only way she can feed herself is to sell her body. Hope arrives one day in the form of the handsome Andrei, who promises her a better life in Sweden. But destiny is working against her... The courageous Lilya 4-Ever combines an acerbic criticism of capitalism, which Moodysson sees as the underlying cause of the sex trade, with a preternatural faith in God and the riches of a life after death. Despite their surface-level camaraderie, all of Moodysson's films show how adults can cause pain and humiliation even when they mean well; Lilya 4-Ever makes this abuse the film's major topic, and couches it in a deeply affecting modern-day fairytale dripping with pain and sympathy. "If you want to study the world you should study the most vulnerable parts of the world. Childhood is greatly sacrificed today. I believe you are who you used to be. Many grown-ups forget what it was like to be young and start to play golf instead."--Lukas Moodysson		Programme Code: LILJA Fri Sep 27, 1:00pm Granville 7 Cinema 7 $6.50 Sun Sep 29, 9:30pm Visa Screening Room @the Vogue $8.50 Fri Oct 4, 3:00pm Granville 7 Cinema 3 $6.50 Selected Filmography Show Me Love (98), Together (00)
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