Lilya 4-Ever (2002)(AKA Lilja 4-ever,
Lilja 4ever)
From the opening moment of “Lilya
4-Ever,” it is clear that we are entering the realm
of a teenager. The music is loud and grating. The
action is intense and frantic. The images are jangled
and confused. This perception continues throughout
the film. We see the film through the eyes of the
titular main character, a 16-year-old girl. And by
“through her eyes” I don’t mean that the camera presents
the visual world from her P.O.V. Rather, everything
about the film is sophomoric and teenage. The music
goes from off to loud with no in-between. The adult
characters are heartless, one-dimensional villains.
Men are panting monsters whose only desire is to brutally
fuck you. The world is meaningless. And, as Lilya
herself proclaims, “life is shit.” The only escape
is money and drugs – or relocation to anywhere else.
Lilya lives in the Soviet Union.
She lives in a rather decent apartment. But her mother
has met a man and is moving to the U.S. When Lilya
finds out she will not be going, her world quickly
unravels into poverty and squalor. And we see the
plot coming very quickly. Her situation obviously
sends her spiraling headlong into prostitution. But
this is not enough for filmmaker Lukas Moodysson (the
Swedish filmmaker who graced us with this films diametric
opposition “Tillsammans” AKA “Together” last year).
If teenage prostitution and drug abuse don’t seem
horrific enough to us, Moodysson takes the film to
its utmost conclusion: kidnapping, rape and sexual
slavery. It actually surprises us when child pornography
and the rape of a young teenage boy don’t also figure
into the mix. But then again, this latter notion would
fall outside the realm of Lilya’s experience and we
are seeing the world through her eyes.
The film is also decidedly communistic
as it paints a picture as all men either being capitalists
or bourgeoisie. Most men here are simply consumers,
paying only to, to put it bluntly, fuck Lilya. The
others become her pimps, her captors. Men either use
her sexually or use her to make money. The only male
not guilty of this is Voladya, a young teenage boy
who initially tries to be sexual with Lilya but eventually
becomes her friend and her confidant. Finally, he
will be her archangel as well.
The true intent of the communistic
message here is further enhanced by the use of McDonald’s.
The worldwide company’s logo appears on paper bags
here and Lilya’s kidnapper/pimp even takes her to
the drive-thru of one of their restaurants after she
turns a trick. The message is blatant: The Capitalist
system, which spawned the worldwide proliferation
of companies like McDonald’s, turns teenage girls
into prostitutes and human beings into slaves.
Moodysson tells his story rather
straight-forward here until the final reel where reality,
like Lilya’s tender mind, starts to unravel. Christianity,
which Lilya has suggested is her religion, has left
her nonetheless orphaned and adrift in a world that
only wants to repeatedly abuse her. Still, in a nod
to Wim Wenders, Lilya is saved by the appearance of
an angel. He tries to convince her that she should
still value life and attempt to make something of
it. He suggests that she has not lived enough. But
Lilya realizes the truth: Neither money nor drugs
nor relocation to the U.S. are valid ways to escape.
Even an unlocked door without a watchman offers no
exit to freedom. In the end, the only path to happiness
is death.
Lilya’s “forever” ends when she
is merely a teenager.
Notes:
With Oksana Akinshina as Lilya and
Artyom Bogucharsky as Voladya.
Viewed in Austin in March 2003
at the SXSW Film Festival.
