This movie is a nightmare to watch but it easily establishes Lukas Moodysson as one of my favourite directors, after Fucking Åmål which is one of my favourite movies ever. This is not only a great character study movie, and I love character studies, it’s a character study where you’re personally placed in the shoes of the character in question – in one sequence, by way of POV camera-work, way too frankly.

Lilya goes through so much in this movie, it becomes like a documentary. It ceases to be a movie because you cannot help but think that, sh*t, this stuff actually happens. It’s happening in front of my eyes, it’s happening. And however much you want it, there ain’t no reward at the journey’s end. The ending is as harsh and upfront as the rest of the movie. A movie you cry over weeks later when you think it’s passed out of your mind but the reality suddenly hits you.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 10th, 2004 at 8:28 pm in Movie Reviews, unrated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.