Lilya 4-ever = Lilya forever [DVD]

Lukas Moodyson (Show me love, Together) delivers a bleak and melancholic story of a young Russian girl Lilya (Oksana Akinshina) who is abandoned by her mother (absconding to America with a boyfriend), deceived by her aunt and guardian and then betrayed by a friend who ruins Lilya’s reputation and consequently, her life. By a series of misunderstandings Lilya falls into prostitution and is then duped by an older man into believing a new life awaits her in the West. Once there however Lilya is forced into an array of humiliating and degrading circumstances that drive her to the brink. Set in the former Soviet Union, this is a somewhat desolate tale of dehumanisation, which contrasts starkly to the sunniness and humour of Moodyson’s “Together”, drawing on the grave themes of parent abandonment, child prostitution and human trafficking. Also available on VHS [318953].