Lilja 4-ever 2002

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: [Moodysson] dives into the soul of a 16-year-old Estonian girl and tears you apart. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: ... a fantastic movie. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: By the end of the film, our hearts will burn and break for Lilya. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Both an archetypal case study and a personal drama whose spunky central character you come to care about so deeply that you want to cry out a warning at each step toward her ruination. Read more

Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A wrenching feel-bad movie graced by a luminous central performance. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: This isn't an easy film -- only a memorable one. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A haunting and incandescent work of art. Read more

Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly: Here [Moodysson's] even more scarily adroit at mining the interior lives of his characters, paradoxically by painting such vivid, harsh external realities. Read more

Newsday: Grim but honest, and young Oksana Akinshina is glorious. Read more

Bob Campbell, Newark Star-Ledger: This sober, unsparing drama, strong if unambitious, is probably as perfectly characteristic a specimen of serious European filmmaking as any movie ever made. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Akinshina, a beauty on the order of Anna Kournikova, is a terrific actress who manages, amid the bleakness of her scenes, to create a fully dimensional portrait of a confused teenager who loses her innocence and virtually all hope, but never her pride. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: What Lilja 4-Ever has in common with the greatest films is its spiritual transcendence. Don't miss it. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: One of the least happy films I have seen in a while, but also one of the most memorable and moving. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I read of thousands of women from Eastern Europe who are lured into virtual slavery. I hope some of their clients will attend this movie, even if for the wrong reasons, and see what they are responsible for. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: Lilya seeps into your bones, and it's not easy to shake off. Read more

Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle: Akinshina, a gorgeous and extraordinarily poised young actress, can switch in a flash from wounded kid to jaded know-it-all. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Worth every uncomfortable minute. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Read more

Gunnar Rehlin, Variety: A hard-hitting, dark and tragic story that rarely lets up. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Show Me Love and Together were a bit sentimental for my taste; the brutally overdetermined Lilya demonstrates that [Moodysson] can go to the other extreme. Read more