Lilya 4-ever

It's been over a year since the first time I watched this film and I can safely say im still so in love with it. I genuinely didn't think I would ever watch this again but here we are because I just needed to show this to my boyfriend. Honestly it might've hit even harder now despite already knowing what happens and not getting the shock factor. To me this is probably one of the if not the most depressing film ever made. This is just so insanely well made. I love everything about it I can't even begin to critique anything. Akinshina's acting is genuinely incredibly considering her being only around 15 at the time of filming, and the way she potrayed Lilya's character just felt so real. I hate doing film yaps talking about the technical points of films but I definitely think this one succeeded in most of those aspects too. This is one of the rare films that have made me feel genuinely sick and anxious. The last 30ish minutes are just so painfully uncomfortable to watch but you can't look away. I'm actually never getting over this. One of the saddest things to me is how the same thing that happened to Lilya, probably happened to her mother too. Meeting a man that convinces them to move abroad for work, never coming back or properly contacting anyone at home again. The parallers between Lilya's mom leaving her and Lilya leaving Volodja. It's just all so sad and shows how brutally common this is in some parts of the world. On a more positive side note, as a big fan of brutalism I lowkey really enjoy the aesthetical aspect of the film. The post-soviet architecture just makes me feel something and I really liked the overall vibe of the former USSR country. Everything looks so depressing but I fw it so hard. Just the whole overall atmosphere of the film is fire.