Lilya 4-ever
| Lilja 4-ever | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Lukas Moodysson |
| Produced by | Lars Jönsson |
| Written by | Lukas Moodysson |
| Starring |
Oksana Akinshina Artyom Bogucharsky Lyubov Agapova Liliya Shinkaryova |
| Music by | Nathan Larson |
| Cinematography | Ulf Brantås |
| Edited by |
Michal Leszczylowski Oleg Morgunov Bernhard Winkler |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
Sonet Film (Sweden) Newmarket Films (US) |
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Release date
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Running time
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109 minutes |
| Country | Sweden Denmark |
| Language | Russian Swedish English Polish |
| Budget | 30 million SEK (USD$4.6 million) |
| Box office | $184,023 (US) |
Lilja 4-ever is a 2002 Swedish-Danish drama film which was released to cinemas in Sweden on 23 August 2002, directed by Lukas Moodysson. Lilja 4-ever is a story of the downward spiral of Lilja, played by Oksana Akinshina, a girl in the former Soviet Union whose mother abandons her to move to the United States. The story is loosely based on the true case of Danguolė Rasalaitė, and examines the issue of human trafficking and sexual slavery.
The film received positive reviews both in Sweden and abroad. It won five Guldbagge Awards including Best Film, as well as was nominated for Best Film and Best Actress at the European Film Awards.
The film begins with a figure running towards a motorway bridge. When the figure turns around, the film introduces the audience to Lilya, an adolescent girl who has recently been brutally beaten. The film then reveals her past.
Lilya lives with her mother in a run-down apartment block in an unnamed former republic of the Soviet Union (principal filming took place in Paldiski, Estonia). Lilya's mother tells her they are emigrating to the United States with the mother's new boyfriend, but instead she abandons Lilya in the care of her aunt while she moves to the U.S. The aunt moves herself into the larger, nicer flat that Lilya and her mother had lived in while forcing Lilya to move into a smaller, squalid apartment.
A subsequent succession of humiliations and miseries are heaped upon Lilya. Her best friend encourages her to join her in prostitution, but Lilya does not join her. When money is discovered in the friend's possession, she lies and implicates Lilya, whose reputation is subsequently ruined in the community and at school, culminating in her being raped by a group of boys she knows. Lilya ultimately has to actually become a prostitute to support herself.
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Wikipedia