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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Lilya 4-Ever
Newmarket Film Group


9.4

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 24 votes
Read user comments
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FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for strong sexual content, a rape scene, drug use and language

Starring Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharsky, Lyubov Agapova, Liliya Shinkaryova, Elina Benenson, Pavel Ponomaryov, Tomas Neumann, and Anastasiya Bedredinova

Set in contemporary Russia, this film recounts 13-year-old Lilya's struggle to survive the grim streets.

GENRE(S):	Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Lukas Moodysson
DIRECTED BY:	Lukas Moodysson
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: April 18, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	109 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Denmark / Sweden
LANGUAGE(S):	Russian / German / Swedish (with English subtitles)

Original title "Lilja 4-ever"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Light entertainment, this is not. Unforgettable and challenging cinema, it is.

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A haunting and incandescent work of art.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's almost too devastating for words, yet never less than compelling and heartbreakingly affecting.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The most remarkable achievement of the film is its presentation of Lilya's story as both an archetypal case study and a personal drama whose spunky central character you come to care about so deeply that you want to cry out a warning at each step toward her ruination.

Variety Gunnar Rehlin

Hard-hitting, dark and tragic story that rarely lets up.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Lilya's struggle to make a life for herself is both heartbreaking and heart-stirring.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

It is Akinshina's presence and performance that make the pedestrian story heart-wrenching. She is pretty, responsive, reflective. Without the slightest strain, she convinces us of the beauty and pathos and hope within Lilya.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

As with "Together," Moodysson has pulled off a staggering dramatic coup, and again we are forced to ask: How does he do it? [21 & 28 April 2003, p.194]

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

Lilya is the more genuinely unsettling film because Moodysson seems to actually know something of what it is to take and stumble beneath a crushing blow. You feel that here. And you feel it for days after.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

I can't think of another good movie this year that's as tough to watch as Moodysson's, but, then, I can't think of very many movies that are as good.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

If you're tired of false holiday cheer, Lilya 4-Ever will provide a corrective to the spiritual eggnog force-fed to us all season. The climax takes place during Christmas, though one that would make Tiny Tim grateful for his crutch and cold chimney corner.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Lukas Moodysson, a young Swedish director, crafts a stunner of a film out of familiar turf.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Lilya is portrayed by Oksana Akinshina, who gives a dynamic, heartbreaking performance... She was wonderful in ["Brothers"], but is even more astonishing in Lilya 4-Ever.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

What's remarkable as we watch Lilya's plunge (and the brief, false rays of light that illuminate it) is how real Moodysson makes her plight, how intensely he makes us empathize with Lilya.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Forget "Irreversible," this is the season's most piercingly feel-bad movie.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Akinshina and Bogucharskij are remarkable together, and Moodysson once again demonstrates a sophisticated visual skill matched only by his innate understanding of the adolescent heart.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Terrific filmmaking, but it's hard to leave Moodysson's picture without feeling much of anything except hopelessness. Utterly.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Riveting.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Doesn't derive its power from the turning wheels of plot suspense but from the simple act of looking and not blinking.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

This grim Danish-Swedish production is socially revealing and artistically creative, both coldly realistic and infused with compassion for its heroine and her youth culture.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie, written and directed by Lukas Moodysson, has the directness and clarity of a documentary, but allows itself touches of tenderness and grief.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

What it became is essentially one long free-fall from destitution to despair.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Not without its own bleak integrity. But the movie wipes you out and leaves you with nothing, not even the feeling of exaltation that can be present in the most tragic works of art.

Film Threat Rich Cline

Amazingly realistic and engaging drama about society punctuated with both humor and grittiness.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

a despairing movie that you can't look away from, though you'll wish you could.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The result is grimly "effective," but it made me long for Hollywood junk.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.4 (out of 10) based on 24 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Colin E. gave it a10:
Riveting and powerful study of one girls journey from poverty and abandonment to life as a sex slave. Will impact all but the most cynical & hard hearted viewer, while telling one of the most important stories of the past decade. The issue of pedaling young girls for profit is a story that should be told in every high school.

Yael S. gave it an8:
is been almost 3 years since I've seen it and i still cant get over it. it goes to your soul, and plants itself there and like an internet virus comes up every now and then to shock and shake again. please watch it. you need to know this stuff.

M. Daye gave it a10:
If there is a more frightening and effective portrayal of a young girl's slow downfall, I've yet to see it.

Himu R. gave it a10:
This Is One Splendid Movie.It Must Be Shared With Everybody.

Dan C. gave it a9:
Not easy to watch, but Lilya (Oksana Akinshina) and Volodya (Artiom Bogucharski) share such a warm, genuine rapport that there is some redemption to be found, if only in their all too fleeting moments together. Immensely compelling. Akinshina is a wonder.

Mark B. gave it a10:
Intelligent people with taste will love this movie. It reluctantly and sadly stole my heart. Rule of thumb: if someone can't spell "too" or "instead", don't listen to their review.

John M gave it a10:
The best movie of 2003, not to mention the most important.

Lilya 4-Ever Newmarket Film Group

Lilya 4-Ever
Newmarket Film Group