Product Description

Sweden released, PAL/Region 2 DVD:it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: Russian ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ),Danish ( Subtitles ),English ( Subtitles ),Finnish ( Subtitles ),Norwegian ( Subtitles ),Swedish ( Subtitles ),WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Trailer(s),SYNOPSIS: A teenager abandoned by her family slips into a downward spiral of sex and degradation in this frank drama from Sweden. Lilya (Oksana Akinshina) is a 16-year-old girl growing up in poverty in the former Soviet Union. Lilya's mother (Lyubov Agapova) is moving to the United States with her new boyfriend, and Lilya has been told she'll be coming with them. However, at the last minute Lilya is informed she'll be staying behind with her aunt Anna (Liliya Shinkaryova), and she'll be joining her mother later on. Anna immediately takes over the apartment Lilya shared with her mother, and moves her niece into a much smaller (and dirtier) flat several blocks away. For the most part left on her own, Lilya spends much of her time with her best friend, Natasha (Elina Benenson), and comes to the rescue of Volodya (Artiom Bogucharski), a suicidal 14-year-old boy who has been thrown out of his home and has a serious problem with alcohol and drugs. One night at a nightclub, Natasha meets a man who is willing to pay her for sex; when her father finds the money, Natasha claims it belongs to Lilya, and the story soon spreads that Lilya is a prostitute. When Lilya learns that her mother has no intention of bringing her to the United States, she becomes despondent and begins sleeping with men for money. Not long after taking up the sex trade she meets Andrei (Pavel Ponomaryov), who promises her a better and easier life if she'll come to Sweden with him. However, Lilya learns the hard way that there's no truth in Andrei's words

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46098 in DVD
• Formats: Import, PAL, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Subtitled in: English, Swedish, Danish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 104 minutes

Features

• THIS DVD WILL NOT WORK ON STANDARD US DVD PLAYER

From The New Yorker
Lilya (Oksana Akinshina) is a chirpy girl of sixteen, sunk in a stagnant backwater of what used to be the Soviet Union. She is, to all intents and purposes, orphaned when her witch of a mother abandons her to seek a life in America. Lilya starts with practically nothing and goes downhill from there, winding up selling her body to the vulpine patrons of a bar; what redeems the movie-what renders a squalid experience quite sacred in its intensity-is the vehemence with which the writer and director, Lukas Moodysson, asks whether his heroine has also sold her soul. The caustic portrait that he paints of his native Sweden, to which the deluded Lilya is transported in her quest for a future, has brought him both outrage and acclaim; what is beyond doubt is the brio of his storytelling and the branding of the girl's misfortune onto our hearts and nerves. With Artiom Bogucharski as the artless dodger who becomes her only friend. In German, Swedish, English, and Russian. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Definitely a must see film
I highly recommend this movie. It really does a great job of telling the story of what life is like for many people in Russia and the former Soviet Union, and will open your eyes to the unfortunate reality of human trafficking and sexual slavery. I personally think that the last part of the film should have been done differently, and that really brought the film down a few notches in my book. But because of the overall power of the film I still feel it's worthy of 5 stars. Because of what it's about... it's not a film that you will really "enjoy", but it's still a great movie that's definitely worth watching.

Heartbreaking. Why is there no Region 1 version?
Forget "Hostel." Tales like Lilya's are the true horror stories of Eastern Europe after the fall of the former Soviet Union. As children unloved and betrayed, and surviving in conditions that would drive adults to desperation, Lilya and Volodya will break your heart and stay in your memory for a long time. The two young actors who play Lilya and Volodya are outstanding. Those of you who have seen The Bourne Supremacy may remember the actress who plays Lilya here; she had a small role in that film as a young Russian woman.

I have no idea why this film is unavailable in Region 1 format. It's a classic. It deserves to be a part of the standard American cineast's collection.

As another poster said, get it on Netflix. You shouldn't miss this one.

amazed
i cannot believe how good this film was in using music and image to evoke such emapthy from me for a fictional character-show this film to all the spoiled brats of the world.