There is no hope if you are young and defenseless. Just kill yourself, and you'll go straight to heaven-that is the message that I got. However, the plot is slightly more interesting than that, although, as I stated earlier, there really is no hope and things will inevitably get from bad to worst. I must admit that I will never learn to appreciate Moodysson's cinematography. It annoys me as no other Scandinavian Dogma-95-influenced cinematography does. I actually believe that he tries oh-so-hard to prove to someone (God?Scandinavian audience?Lars von Trier) that this is the group he associates himself with. The acting by the first-time child actors is good, as it is in most Moodysson's films. And yet, the benefit of being able to understand Russian clearly demonstrated that a)those Russian kids are directed by a foreigner (duh), and b)their parts were not written by someone who is very fluent in Russian. Their performances were not wooden-but their delivery kind of was. However, most of the actors in this film were a pleasure to watch. Overall, 7/10, just for the skillful and honest (albeit, annoying at times) presentation of the tragedy.
Review of Lilya 4-Ever
