Lilja 4-ever (2002)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Lilja	Oksana Akinshina
Volodja	Artyom Bogucharsky	½

Review

Lukas Moodysson's Lilja 4-ever is an important document which is a bit too aware of its importance. The heart-rending story of a 16-year-old girl from a republic of the former Soviet Union who dreams of the wonderful west and is tricked into a world of slavery and prostitution is unfortunately anything but exclusive. But Moodysson, perhaps the most talented Swedish director since Lasse Hallström, gets too preoccupied with morale and tragedy, and restrains his characters to scenes and sequences that too often are just there for the sake of the plot's progression and our misery. In turn, this makes the movie too predictable. We anticipate every move long before it happens, and although Lilja 4-ever never was meant to be a suspense film, it would have profited from keeping its narrative progression more fresh and dynamic.