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IMDb > Lilja 4-ever (2002)
Lilja 4-ever
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Lilja 4-ever (2002) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.9/10   14,036 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 2% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Lukas Moodysson
Writer:
Lukas Moodysson (writer)
Contact:
View company contact information for Lilya 4-Ever on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
23 August 2002 (Sweden) more
Genre:
Crime | Drama more
Plot:
Lilja is 16 years old. Her only friend is the young boy Volodja. They live in Estonia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej. He is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
12 wins & 11 nominations more
User Comments:
compelling Swedish drama more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Oksana Akinshina ... Lilja
Artyom Bogucharsky ... Volodya
Lyubov Agapova ... Lilja's Mother
Liliya Shinkaryova ... Aunt Anna
Elina Benenson ... Natasha
Pavel Ponomaryov ... Andrei
Tomasz Neuman ... Witek (as Tomas Neumann)
Anastasiya Bedredinova ... Neighbor
Tõnu Kark ... Sergei
Nikolai Bentsler ... Natasha's Boyfriend
Aleksander Dorosjkevitch ... Friend #1
Yevgeni Gurov ... Friend #2 (as Jevgeni Gurov)
Aleksandr Sokolenko ... Friend #3
Margo Kostelina ... Cashier #1
Veronika Kovtun ... Cashier #2
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Lilya 4-Ever (UK) (USA)
Lilja 4ever (Sweden) (alternative spelling)
Lilya 4-ever (International: English title)
more
MPAA:
Rated R for strong sexual content, a rape scene, drug use and language.
Runtime:
109 min
Country:
Sweden | Denmark
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
DTS | Dolby Digital
Company:
Memfis Film more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The town in which Lilja lives, is in real life called Paldiski and is located in Estonia, not far from the capital Tallinn. The submarine base has now been destroyed. more
Quotes:
Lilja: I'm not your property. Think you can buy me? You can't buy me. You can't buy my heart and soul. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "High Chaparall: (#3.7)" (2005) more

FAQ

Does Lilya die at the end of the movie?
more
94 out of 108 people found the following comment useful:-
compelling Swedish drama, 5 December 2004
Author: mfridell from Oregon, USA

Lilja 4-ever is an excellently-crafted film created by and for Swedes to help stimulate public debate and redress the issue of the vulnerability of immigrant children. It's a cruel, enlightening, compelling watch for anyone in the West, but it's most definitely not a movie for escapism, it's not an After School Special, and it's a world away from the endless contemporary assault/insult of bald neocon propaganda on Anglo-American screens.

Unless you're very, very dead inside, Lilja 4-ever will horrify you, move you to tears, and leave you speechless...at least in its immediate aftermath. And if you are dead inside, the implicit subject is inexorable capitalist alienation and trauma, so why not catch a representation of your own inner life on film? Maybe you can work it into a drinking game.

Based on actual, turn-of-the-21st-century suicides of escaped post-Soviet child prostitutes in the suburbs of Sweden, Lilja 4-ever is a well-done drama, featuring terrific acting--especially by Oksana Akinshina and Artyom Bogucharsky. It presents moody and stark cinematography, fine script-writing, and solid direction. Lilja 4-ever is not a documentary, but its subject is relentlessly grim and real: the tragic personal results of the continued, desperate corrosion of Eastern European society and its tacit, rapaciously opportunistic exploitation in the isolated, commuter highway-bound suburbs of the West. For its success in making these links visible and cinematic, Lilja 4-ever is outstanding.

I saw Lilja 4-ever when it was released in Stockholm in 2002. You can't watch this particular movie waiting for some good one-liners to repeat to the guys around the water cooler. You may not be able to identify with Lilja. You don't need to feel like she could be your girlfriend. For this movie to work, and to grasp who Lilja is, you need to be able to feel human compassion, sympathy and empathy, and to recognize and appreciate the drama in our socio-economic connections.

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