Greetings gentle readers, welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a tragic one, Lilya 4-Ever, the story of a desperate young woman in post-Soviet Russia who is led into a life of prostitution. Apologies for the lack of thumbnails, for some reason they aren’t showing up automatically has they have in the past, no idea why.

https://youtu.be/hbvST8hVOrg?si=31VbdzAsKWJYAKwn

and next week’s film: Paprika:

https://tubitv.com/movies/100006197/paprika

This requires signing up for Tubi (free) but it’s worth the annoyance.

Reviews of Lilya 4-Ever:

RogerEbert.com says:

The movie, written and directed by Lukas Moodysson, has the directness and clarity of a documentary, but allows itself touches of tenderness and grief. It is so sad to see this girl, even after weeks of prostitution, saying the Lord’s Prayer in front of a framed drawing of a guardian angel. And there are two fantasy sequences, toward the end, that provide her with an escape, however illusory.

The movie should inspire outrage, but I read of thousands of women from Eastern Europe who are lured into virtual slavery. I hope some of their clients will attend this movie, even if for the wrong reasons, and see what they are responsible for.

Letterboxd says:

Such a bleak, hopeless movie. Any time something slightly good happened, something terrible would happen straight after. I loved Liljia and Volodja’s relationship, felt like the only happy thing about this film. I loved the scene with Liljia and Volodja talking about life on the rooftop. Also, Rammstein is in the film so bonus points

and

Some people have children and, in the end, they don’t want them. They abandon them, and if society doesn’t allow them to leave their kids or kick them out, they become deeply toxic instead. They turn into monsters you’re forced to live with. When you grow up in that kind of environment, you end up completely lost, unsure of who you are or what to do with your life. The world feels huge, cruel, and overwhelming, and you’re fighting every day just to survive.

Lilya didn’t choose to sell her body because she wanted to. She did it because she needed to eat and survive. It was painfully clear that this wasn’t her desire. She only wanted a chance at a better, normal life, but survival left her no other option. She was betrayed by the people she trusted. Everyone used her and took advantage of her and showed a shocking level of cruelty by refusing to see the human being behind her actions.

Lilya didn’t deserve any of this. She deserved safety, care, and a good life. What makes the film even more heartbreaking is knowing that this story isn’t fiction for many girls in the real world. There are countless Lilyas out there. The world can be incredibly dark and evil, and it’s easy to understand why she eventually lost the will to live.

I hope that anyone whose life mirrors Lilya’s finds peace, whether they survived or not. And for those still trapped in this brutal human trafficking system, I truly hope they find a way out and a chance to heal.

I hope you can see all of this, god.

The Guardian

says:

Lilya 4-Ever is part of an urgent new wave of movies about immigrants and asylum seekers: films like Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Last Resort and Michael Winterbottom’s outstanding docu-drama In This World – and there is an echo with Winterbottom’s movie when Lilya realises that to a stateless person without rights, “this world” can look more or less the same whatever country you’re in.

But in comparison with Moodysson’s film, each of these recent features softened the blow and sugared the pill with grace notes of compassion and hope. For humane or aesthetic reasons, they shrank from exploring the very worst that human beings can experience. Lilya 4-Ever, frankly, does not.

My take: This is one sad film. As the reviews above indicate, it is unrelenting in its grimness. It’s often hard to watch, between the physical violence and the psychological trauma. But it is true to life. I thought it was especially topical given the state of Ukraine, where doubtless young women are turning to prostitution to survive. If it’s a little too much, fear not, next week’s film is much more uplifting.

Director: Lukas Moodysson

Writer: Lukas Moodysson

Notable Actor: Oksana Akinshina

Plot (Spoilers!):

Lilya(Akinshina) is excited. Her mother is moving to America with her new boyfriend. Lilya expects to come along.

She doesn’t. She is abandoned by her mother to the care of an aged aunt whose first move is to eject Lilya from her apartment and install her in a much smaller, dingier one. Lilya is left to her own devices.

Things spiral downwards from there. She is accused of prostitution and is raped by a gang of local boys. Her only friend is a young boy who is just as desperate as she.

Then hope appears. A handsome stranger comes into her life, spending money on her and taking her on dates. He makes her an offer she cannot refuse. Move to Sweden and work on a vegetable farm. It’s like paradise compared to Russia.

She takes him up on his offer but soon learns it was a ruse. She handed over to a man who immediately prostitutes her out. She is raped and brutalized over and over. Finally, in despair, she jumps off an overpass.

*******Bonus Horror*******

This is an audiobook of Thomas Ligotti’s The Cocoons. Ligotti is in my opinion the best horror writer of all time. He is unlike anyone else I know of, perhaps approached by Lovecraft, my second favorite horror writer.