Lilya 4-Ever [guardian]:

"It is an uncompromisingly bleak, devastatingly powerful study of Lilya (Oksana Akinshina), a poverty-stricken teenage girl abandoned in a crumbling Russian town when her mother leaves, apparently for the United States, with a man she has met through a dating agency - and refuses to take her with them. In her wretchedness, Lilya finds a friend in a lonely 11-year-old boy, Volodya (Artyom Bogucharsky), but then precisely duplicates her mother's betrayal when she meets a smooth-talking young guy who says he can take her away to Sweden.

But then Moodysson, with a demonic showman's flourish, raises the curtain on the second act in Lilya's life. On arriving in Sweden she finds that the promised job does not exist. It was all a trick and Lilya is imprisoned and forced into prostitution - repeatedly raped, day after day after day, in ways that Moodysson pitilessly shows us from her perspective. And in a flash of delirious despair we can sense what is passing through Lilya's own mind: what has happened to her mother? Was the US she was promised an illusion also? And does Lilya somehow deserve what has happened for deserting Volodya? It is the biggest delusion, the strangest fear, and the worst horror of all.

This is certainly an extravagantly cruel movie: really cruel in a way that I have hardly experienced in any other film - but compelling as well. Forced prostitution is a horrible reality linking the pauperised post-Soviet states and the sex industry in the moneyed west. (Here I must raise a caveat. The Russian critic Alexander Kan tells me that the Russian dialogue sometimes sounds stilted, possibly from being unsatisfactorily translated from Swedish. I admit I can't judge this.)" [what's this? caveat? what's a caveat? why change topic just as you were getting to some sort of point?!]

quality of review shockingly low by the way. observer review even worse.. maybe due to this:

"The recent films released here about the illegals have been clearly shaped by liberal, decent concern. Moodysson's seems to me to be fiercer and more ambiguous than this."

"if you're offended, you obv didn't get it" [b hicks]

to continue, or rather: start where mr. guardian stops [caveat? why doesnt he follow through on sentence (a)? here's a fucking caveat:]

let me rephrase: fiercer and more ambiguous than liberal and decent concern? beyond liberal or beyond decent?

this isnt a docusoap, its realistic fiction, that's why it hurts so fucking much. as it wasnt harry tosspott (mild-hearted asexual airey-fairey fantasy world bullshit), there were only three people in the audience. one girl ran out crying histerically, spilling popcorn all over the place. i found this film deeply involving emotionally. although there is a bit of a post-modern christian theme (lilya's friend reappears with angel-wings in her dream, she is carrying around an icon portraying orthodox saints which is meant to symbolise hope i suppose), this film is soldidly rooted in the dire circumstance of child prostitution and sex slavery.

although moodyson does stylise along clear moral lines to some extent there was no element of the "promised job- then held in cellar" deal which i hadnt read about in (mainstream journalistic) reports regarding the german meat trade for instance (on offer: children, kidneys). the dirty old mincers desperately clinging on to, sweating on, puberscent youth, vs the innocence of a young girl who is first forced to sell herself as she has been abandoned by her mother, then later sold for rape to mentally ill first world whiteys- it really is trivial information minus that silk lining!

the reviewer is correct in saying that moodyson knows "no pity" in terms of visuals. but why should we not get to see a little bit of that ugly everyday truth? "a vivisectional experiment in horror and despair"- that's exaclty what makes it so good you liberal-half-heart-wishi-washi twat! make the sex a bit prettier, the alienated rich paedophiles a bit younger, presto youve got fucking "Lolita" all over again! why should we not be reduced to tears for once? if you want smile + forget yourself flick on that superstars programme!

this film reflects on the neo-imperial gradient of wealth and the very real material consequences of our continuing acceptance of this contrast. human flesh/blood/spirit is of differential value depending on the geographical zone one happens to be geworfen into. if you're low-priority meat, vom schicksal gefickt [ok this is v crude heidegger] there's not even any point to praying/hoping for a future worth living.

have a nice day, enjoy your luxurious lifestyles, thanks god we're free to do as we're told- more snickers, more coke, put harry tosspott on!

the director lukas moodysson has also got a film on the gothenburg protests out, and appears to be working on a big-brotheresque piece.