Lilya-4-Ever

LILYA-4-EVER
METRODOME DISTRIBUTION
RELEASED 25 April 2003

Swedish director Lukas Moodysson’s ‘Lilya-4-Ever’ is a depressing look at life in the former Soviet Union. Sixteen year-old Lilya is abandoned by her mother and left to fend for herself in a run-down flat while still at school with just dreams of a better life to keep her going. Her only true friend is Volodya, an eleven year-old with his own troubled family life. Plunged into a world of drugs, prostitution, and violence, Lilya will do whatever it takes to stay alive. One day it seems her prayers are answered when she chances upon a way to escape and begin a new life in Sweden. But Lilya finds life can be just as cruel anywhere in the world.

Oksana Akinshina is superb in the title role, bringing a tremendous range of emotions to Lilya’s sad and wasted life. Moodysson has highlighted the appalling social degredation of the crumbled Soviet Union which shows no sign of getting better anytime soon.

Strongly supported by Amnesty International and Unicef, ‘Lilya-4-Ever’ is an honest account of the crimes against humanity taking place everyday behind the fallen Iron Curtain.

FOUR OUT OF FIVE