Lilja 4-Ever

‘Mein Herz brennt!’ This film has no gradual introduction, but you get Rammstein directly thrown at you at loud volume. You see a young girl in bad condition, running desperately in a western European landscape of busy motorways. You get the impression that there is no way out. Then she stops at a bridge, staring down at cars rushing by at the busy road below…

The running girl and the loud energetic music makes me thinks of ‘Lola rennt’, the movie of Tom Tykwer. But that’s a very light, cheerful movie compared with ‘Lilja 4-Ever’, the third movie of Lukas Moodysson. Earlier he had quite some success with ‘Fucking Amal’ and ‘Together’, two films which I enjoyed a lot. In these films comedy and tragedy were alternated, but in his newest creation there is not much to laugh about. Just as in his previous films, children again play an important role. The main character is Lilja (Oksana Akinshina), a 16-year old girl. She is often in the company of Voladja (Artyom Bogucharsky), a boy who is two years younger.

The second scene, accompanied by uptempo dance music, brings us to an anonymous Russian village, a desolate grey area full of decaying blocks of flats. We see Lilja being deserted by her mother, who leaves with her new friend to America, the promised land. Lilja is told that she may follow later, and that her mother will write and call her in the meantime. But of course she never hears from her mother again, who even recounces her motherhood over Lilja. An aunt will take care of Lilja, but she only snaps up the nice parental appartment, and sends Lija to a miserable small flat, with hardly any money. She does not have much to do, and hangs around a bit with Voldaja, who is also thrown out often by his parents. Sometimes they are terrorized by teenage boys in the grim neighbourhood. Together they fantasize about a better life, and fill their time sniffing glue and drinking cheap alcohol.

When her financial condition becomes critical, Lilja is forced to sell her body to older rich men in the city. On one of her trips to a nightclub she meets Andrej. He is very different from all the other men she meets, being kind and helpful, and she falls in love with his charms. Andrei asks her to come with him to Sweden. He offers her a better life, with a good job and a nice house. She decides to grab this chance, which seems to good to be true. Unfortunately there is no possibility for Volodja to come with her, and he stays behind on his own.

The opening scene already betrayed that the film won’t have a happy ending. And indeed, the worst is still to come, the intentions of Andrej turn out to be not that charitable…
An impressive movie, that is very grim and dark. Innocence and fairytales can’t win it from the cruel world of profit and exploitation. The only comfort that the film offers is in the after-life scenes with angels. The young actors are very good, playing in a very natural manner. The filming is very realistic, a bit documentary-like. The sometimes loud music fit the images very well, sometimes alternated with very silent moments. ‘Lilja 4-Ever’ is a slap in your face, and sadly based on reality…