It’s not on Moviepooper.com. I know it’s a very sad movie about a Russian girl tricked into prostitution, but beyond that… you tell me.
And… did you like it? Were you moved by it? And how did it end?
Well, Lilya escapes from her pimp/captor near the end but is afraid to seek help. She then jumps off an overpass in an attempt to commit suicide. After being carted off in an ambulance she dies from her injuries and goes to a rooftop heaven where she is seen (with angel wings) playing basketball with her younger male friend (who earlier in the film, distraught after she abandoned him to run off with her “boyfriend,” killed himself). This ending is (I believe) open to interpretation: did Lilya really die or was she just hallucinating her own vision of heaven? Even the cynic in me likes to think that adorable little Lilya lives but that’s probably not the case.
I did enjoy the movie, which may be Lukas Moodysson’s finest to date. A depressing look at a very real problem.
I thought she definitely died…but it’s been a couple years since I saw it, so I might be remembering incorrectly. Either way, it’s a very depressing (but good) movie.
You might also like “Maria Full of Grace,” as it has a similar theme about a young girl trying to escape to a better life in another country. Not quite as depressing though.
I think Lilya probably died too, but I don’t believe the film gives a particularly definitive answer. It is a depressing flick, though it ain’t quite so bleak as Moodysson’s A Hole in My Heart. Ouch.
I’ve seen Maria Full of Grace - a fine film if not quite as memorable as Lilya 4-Ever.