Lilya 4-ever
My fourth movie for the Singapore Film Festival was Lilya 4-ever.
We read it in the newspapers all the time -- about girls in remote villages tricked by promises of a job in the city; about girls who are kidnapped and later forced to sell their bodies. However, few are truly aware of the extent of the anguish that the victims of the sex industry experience. Loosely based on a real incident of a 16-year old girl from Eastern Europe who was forced into prostitution before she jumped to her death, this movie is an attempt to highlight the plight of these unfortunate peoples.
Lilya is a pretty 16-year old Russian girl who lives "somewhere in the former Soviet Union" (actually Estonia). She is filled with dreams of going to the United States with her mother and her mother's boyfriend, until they decide to go without her. If things cannot get any worse, her aunt, who was appointed to be her guardian, takes possession of her house and puts her up in a run-down apartment in the slums. Her only friend is 12-year old Volodya, who is often chased out from home by his abusive father. Together, they seek to escape the dreariness of their lives by sniffing glue in the slums that they now call home.
Eventually, Lilya runs out of money. Unfortunately, she is still a child and knows no other means of earning an income. Thus she reluctantly prostitutes herself to feed herself. It is obvious that she does not enjoy it -- after servicing her first client, she throws up on the streets, clearly feeling disgusted with the whole episode. After a session with her second client, in comes Andrei, the modern knight in shining armour who befriends and seduces her, promising to take her to Sweden to live a better life. Even as the we know from our own experience that Andrei is too good to be true, Lilya is still charmed by him, deceived in her mind's eye by what appears to be her only hope of escaping her dreary circumstances.
The second half of the movie concerns Lilya's life in Sweden. Once in Sweden, she is incarcerated in a house and forced by her Swedish "boss" to sell sexual services for his benefit. From this point on, all we can see are her clients who grunt, moan and make all sorts of bestial sounds as the camera moves from one encounter with a client to another, then another, and another ..... Her clients are mostly distinguished rich people, and many clearly come from high society. During the movie, I found myself hoping that some of these well-dressed, distinguished, rich clients would be decent enough to help her out of her predicament. Unfortunately however, she was used by them the way all her other clients used her. So much for the facade of morals.
Lilya maybe a rebellious girl, as most teens of her age probably are, but she is not unkind, as evidenced in the way she is willing to share her meagre belongings with Volodya. During her period of incarceration, she continues to pray to God, although he never seems to answer her prayers. When she is happy, we feel happy for her. When she is sad, we feel sad for her. Such is her effect upon us. Thus, it is extremely heart-wrenching to watch Lilya's torment as she is subjected to one rape after another. One cannot help but sympathize with her plight, and think of the many other people in this world who may be suffering under similar circumstances. Clearly, this movie does not end on a happy note -- in fact, one cannot help but feel uncomfortable watching the movie to its final conclusion. Nevertheless, I found the movie deeply satisfying and would certainly recommend it to other people.
