Last
year, the Political Film Society nominated Tricky
Life as best film exposé for showing
how the white slave trade operates between Uruguay and
Spain. An even grimmer picture of the white slave trade,
this time from Estonia to Sweden, is found in Lilja
4-Ever, directed by Lukas Moodysson, who
dedicates the film to the "millions of children around
the world exploited by the sex trade." Whereas Tricky
Life features young adults who leave their
children behind to go to Spain, believing the promise that
they will earn enough legitimate money to support their
kids, Lilja 4-Ever focuses on
sixteen-year-old Lilja (played by Oksana Akinshina), who
is first abandoned by her parents in Estonia and then promised
a marriage in Sweden that will lift her life out of poverty
and prostitution. When the film begins, Lilja counts on
going to America with her mother (played by Ljubov Agapova)
and stepfather; the latter picked her mother as a "picture
bride," that is, initially from a book of marriage
agency photographs, after which they met in Estonia. However,
the day before the trip, Lilja's mother informs her that
the newlyweds will go to America first, send money to support
her, and then summon her later. Lilja is understandably
unhappy about the change of plans, fearing that she will
have to remain alone in Russia without adult support. Her
mother arranges for her sister Anna (played by Liliya Shinkaryova)
to take care of Lilja; but as soon as her parents leave,
Anna kicks Lilja out of the family apartment (taking the
comfortable abode for herself) and transfers Lilja to a
filthy small apartment that was recently vacated by a soldier
who died. Nevertheless, Lilja has a boyfriend Volodya (played
by Artiom Bogucharskij), who is just past puberty. Volodya's
father kicks him out of his home from time to time, so
Lilja allows him to stay with her. Lilja confides her troubles
to a classmate Natascha (played by Elina Benenson), who
suggests that she can get easy money by being picked up
by men at a disco. When they go, Lilja turns down tricks,
whereas her classmate earns a few hundred rubles. When
Natascha's father discovers that she has a wad of cash,
Natascha tells him that the money was from Lilja for turning
tricks, whereupon the father escorts her to Lilja's apartment
to give back the money, and a rumor spreads that Lilja
is a whore. While neighborhood teenage bullies call her
names, she carves the words "Lilja 4-Ever" in
a bench alongside the word "Volodya" that her
friend previously carved. In any case, Lilja throws away
the money, disgusted. But she soon tries to retrieve the
cash when she discovers that the electricity in her apartment
is turned off for nonpayment of the bill. When she returns
to the trashbin in the street, the cash is gone. Anna refuses
to take her in, telling her to "spread her legs" as
her mother did to earn her keep. Lilja then becomes a prostitute
at the disco, easy prey for Andrei (played by Pavel Ponomarev),
who cleverly pretends to be in love with her so that she
will fly to Sweden as his bride. On the way to the airport,
Andrei tells her of a change of plans, that he has to visit
his mother, who has suddenly fallen sick, but that his
business associate Witek will meet her at the airport and
set up her accommodations and a job of picking vegetables.
Upon her arrival, Witek (played by Tomas Neumann) meets
her, takes her passport (as in Tricky Life),
drives her to a small apartment, and then locks her in
(reminiscent of the teenage female prostitute in Lino Brocka's
1988 film Macho Dancer). Although
Lilja pleaded with Andrei to bring along Volodya, the latter
is left behind and dies from an overdose of pills. Lilja
ultimately jumps to her death after she takes advantage
of the fact that the door to her apartment is left unlocked,
perhaps deliberately so that she would do so. The Political
Film Society has nominated Lilja 4-Ever for
best film of 2003, both as an exposé and as best
film raising consciousness of an important issue of human
rights that has yet to receive appropriate worldwide attention.
MH
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