“Lilya 4-Ever” is no grimmer than its subject matter — the sexual exploitation of young women in the economic wreck of contemporary Russia — warrants. And yet the movie, the third feature from the ...

As every certainty in her lifelove, trust, even the roof over her headcrumbles and disintegrates, a spark still flickers inside 16-year-old Lilya (Oksana Akinshina). It’s a combination of raw teenage ...

A couple of years ago, Swedish poet-turned-filmmaker Lukas Moodysson (“Fucking Amal“) made international film critics’ best-of lists for his hilarious second feature, “Together.” An exuberant send-up ...

The Back Row Manifesto’s Incredibly Personal, Completely Subjective List of the Best Films of The Decade (2000-2009) will be unveiled over the course of the month of December. Think of it as a sort of ...

In Russian and Swedish, with English subtitles. Running time: 105 minutes. Not rated (sex, violence). At the Lincoln Plaza and the Cinema Village. LUKAS Moodysson’s two previous films, the ...

Whether writer/director Lukas Moodysson intended for the viewer to anticipate his every move in the dizzyingly depressing “Lilya 4-ever” or that predictability simply stems from the film’s focus, a ...

An emotional roller coaster ride through a living hell, "Lilya 4-Ever" is a hard-hitting, dark and tragic story that rarely lets up. With this story of a young Russian girl who escapes one hopeless ...

A Russian teen (Oksana Akinshina), abandoned by mom, and with only a glue-sniffing boy (Artiom Bogucharski) for a friend, descends into poverty and wretchedness while dreaming of a better life ...

As Lilya 4-Ever opens, 16-year-old Oskana Akinshina, the Lilya of the title, lives in a rundown housing complex "somewhere in what once was the Soviet Union." At home, she sleeps in a cramped room ...

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