Director: Lukas Moodysson
Country of origin and year: Sweden, 2002
Language: Russian, Swedish, English
Subtitles: English (USA R1), though the English conversations in Sweden are not subtitled
Bonus Features subtitled?: no bonus features

Based loosely on a true story of a Lativan girl, "Lilja 4ever" shows us a sad tale of abandoned children in the former Soviet republics, left to fend for themselves in the squalid condition of the slum apartments. The film starts with Lilja packing her things, and informing her friends that she soon will be off to America. Her mother has met someone through a dating service, and she is moving to America. We can sense the exhiliration that Lilja is feeling, as she is leaving a dreary life behind in Estonia. Soon, we watch Lilja with her mother at the dinner table, where she learns that she is "going to have to stay behind for a while." As her mother runs away to America, Lilja is ripped by the pain of abandonment, especially when she is forced by her Aunt Anna to move into a squalid apartment left by an old man who had died a few months earlier.

As if things seem bad enough already, people around her starting to have different attitudes toward her, especially her friends and teacher. They start humilating her in front of everyone, thus forcing her to avoid them altogether. In the middle of all these, she befriends a 12 year old boy named Volodya, who also lives on the streets as he has been kicked out by his abusive father. They pass the time telling their fantasies, playing games, running through the abandoned military installment where Volodya calls home and sniffling glue to get high. Soon enough, electricity is cut off from the apartment, and Lilja is running out of money. It is evident that her mother is not going to send any money, so she goes out to Aunt Anna's place, only to find out that Aunt Anna has moved into her comfortable apartment she was kicked out from.

Lilja starts to work in the oldest profession, something she doesn't like, yet it brings in the money. One day after working out at night, she gleefully shops around the local market buying food for 160 krooni, and later surprises Volodya with a a present which she has promised him for his birthday. Out on one of her nights, she meets a handsome fellow named Andrej, who offers to drive her home from the club, as it is too dangerous for a girl like her to be walking down the street at night. Lilja is doubtful of Andrej's motive, but it is forgotten when Andrej makes good on his promise that "nothing will happen." They go on dates and eventually Andrej discloses that he actually lives in Sweden and is in Estonia for holiday. He askes Lilja to join with him to live in Sweden, which Lilja happily takes, since she is in such a desperable situation back home. She is given false passports with a different name (Katja), "because they do not allow underage to leave the borders without parents' permissions." Lilja is told by Andrej that he would join her later on, as he has to visit his dying grandmother.

What happens in Sweden is a sad tradegy, as Lilja realises that she has been tricked. She tries to hold onto any hopes she has, to justify her existence on Earth no matter how bad it is. It is a good film, which opens our eyes to the horrors of illegal human trafficking going on around the world and people who unintentionally supports this system. Thousands of children are being forced into prositution as they are neglected by their parents and families. It is sad to realise that some spoiled, bratty children live a very safe existence on this Earth, whilst others live in such miserable lives with such happiness and simplicity. I give this film four stars for the courage of the subject matter.