Sixteen-year-old
Lilja and her closest friend, a young boy named Volodja, live in Estonia.
They fantasize about a better life, a life without the crime, poverty
and sexual assaults. She realizes her life is going nowhere and they
idle the time away smoking, drinking, and popping pills. One day, Lilja
meets Andrej and falls in love. He is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja
to come with him and start a new life. As it turns out, the promise
of utopia is not what it seems. Yes, there is work. And housing. And
security. But there is no escape. Instead Lilja finds herself a young
victim of the underground sex trade.
Lukas
Moodysson wrote and directed this film after researching the rash of
the turn-of-the-21st-century suicides by child prostitutes, relocated
in the Swedish suburbs from Russia. This is not a documentary, but the
subject matter is relentlessly grim, stark and troubling. Here is the
story of the desperate corrosion of the Eastern European society and
its opportunistic exploitation in the isolated suburbs of the West.
A
Swedish Film with optional English or Greek subtitles; widescreen format
(16:9), uncut print (104 min.), DVD encoded for ALL REGION NTSC, playable
on any American machine.
Violence/Coming-of-Age
Sexual Encounter/Drugs/Rape/Sexual Brutality
For Mature Audiences
