Lilya 4-ever Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Lilya 4-ever Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 30, 2023

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Arrow Video's The Lukas Moodysson Collection.

When The New York Times is touting someone as "Sweden's most praised filmmaker since Ingmar Bergman", attention should probably be paid, even if some reading that description and then looking at the name of its referent might still be asking, "Lukas who?" Lukas Moodysson achieved a fair degree of success right out of the gate with his first feature Show Me Love (which had a somewhat more visceral original title, as can be seen on the poster I've included as the "cover image" for that individual listing), but unlike some "overnight successes", he has never seemed content to rest on his laurels, and has frequently thrown caution at least partially to the wind, resulting in a rather audacious array of films that vary from bright and breezy to decidedly dark, dour and depressing (maybe that's where the Bergman angle might be most relevant, and, yes, that's said in jest, at least kind of). Arrow Video has now aggregated a really appealing collection of seven Moodysson films, along with the label's usual penchant for some outstanding supplemental material, handsome packaging and non disc swag.

There's little doubt that both Show Me Love and Together offered audiences occasionally discomfiting situations and/or characters, but my hunch is few if any Swedish audiences at the time were adequately prepared for the horrifyingly brutal narrative that Lilya 4-Ever offers. This film continues Lukas Moodysson's rather remarkable facility with younger actors, but in this case there is next to none of the lightness that helped buoy both of those aforementioned previous entries in Moodysson's filmography.

Lilya 4-Ever is reportedly culled from real life experiences, and the "reality" of the "life" in question is almost immediately shown to be beyond troubling and filled with both physical and emotional violence. Lilya Michailova (Oksana Akinshina) is a young Russian girl living in uncertain conditions in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. A promised trip to the "new land" of the United States turns out to be a cruel joke of sorts, and instead Lilya finds herself more or less abandoned, and then even more devastatingly is beset with a litany of almost Job like afflictions that ultimately sees her forced into prostitution and human trafficking.

Lilya 4-Ever is certainly a testament to Lukas Moodysson's range, and that range is probably even further demonstrated by a largely vérité infused presentational style which moves on to an ending that verges on the same kind of magical realism that informs some of the films of Alejandro González Iñárritu. This is not an easy film to watch by any means, and even a somewhat whimsical finale still has unavoidable undertones of tragedy.

Lilya 4-ever Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Lilya 4-Ever is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow lumps all of the films together on their page devoted to the transfers in the hardcover book included with this set, as follows:

All seven films in this collection are presented in their original aspect ratios (1.85:1 for Fucking Åmål, Lilya 4-Ever, Container, and We Are the Best!; 1.66:1 for Together; 1.78:1 for A Hole in My Heart; and 2.35:1 for Mammoth) with their original 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo audio mixes. Container is presented with both Swedish and English narration options in both 5.1 and 2.0.

Fucking Åmål was restored in 2K by the Swedish Film Institute and approved by director Lukas Moodysson and cinematographer Ulf Brantås. The appearance of the film is the result of an unusual production process. It was shot on 16mm film prior to cutting and then to 35mm duplicate negative which was lit for the final screening copy. For the digital restoration, the original camera negative has been used as source material; this also meant that the optical printer work had to be cut and recreated.

Together was restored in 4K from the original camera negative by the Swedish Film Institute and approved by director Lukas Moodysson and cinematographer Ulf Brantås.

The high definition video masters for the other five films were supplied to Arrow Films by TrustNordisk in association with Memfis Film. Additional restoration work on the digital video master for Container was carried out by R3Store Studios, London.

As mentioned above in the main body of the review, Lilya 4-Ever has a kind of quasi-vérité approach at times, despite a number of more fantastical elements that begin suffusing the presentation, and this transfer offers a suitably gritty organic appearance that helps to visually emphasize the sad downward spiral that Lilya experiences. Detail levels are generally very good to excellent throughout the presentation, and the palette also looks natural, without as much of the yellow skew seen in Show Me Love and Together. Grain is tightly resolved with the possible exception of a couple of the darkest scenes.

Lilya 4-ever Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lilya 4-Ever features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 audio options. As I've mentioned in many other "multilingual" films I've reviewed, our specs here don't allow us to present "combo" tracks in terms of several languages, and the tracks on this disc are identified as being in Russian, English and Swedish (at various times). This is another film with some rather interesting source cues, some of which are "turned up to 11", giving the 5.1 track the edge over the 2.0 track in terms of both dynamic range but also midrange and low end. There's a lot of outdoor material in the story which also helps to populate the side and rear channels with ambient environmental sounds. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Lilya 4-ever Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Lukas Moodysson on Lilya 4-Ever (HD; 9:57) continues Moodysson's conversation with Sarah Lutton.


• Dressing Lilya with Denise Ostholm (HD; 28:17) again features Sarah Lutton, here interviewing the film's costume designer.


• Guardian Interview with Lukas Moodysson 2002 (HD; 1:33:20) is moderated by Danny Leigh, following the UK premiere of Lilya 4-Ever at the 2002 London Film Festival. This comes with a disclaimer about video and audio quality.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 00:32)


• Image Gallery (HD)

Lilya 4-ever Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Some may quibble with the way Moodysson chooses to end this film, in what some may perceive is kind of an emotional copout, given all the trauma and tragedy that has gone before. That said, the visceral emotional intensity of this film is undeniable, and Michailova is unforgettable in the title role. Technical merits are solid and the supplements very enjoyable. Recommended.