Showtimes
Friday, December 19
7:00pm
Ticketing
$12 /Single Ticket
$18 /Double Feature with Thirteen
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Lukas Moodysson’s Lilya 4-ever (2002) is an unflinching yet profoundly empathetic portrait of abandonment and exploitation, where harrowing moments give way to flashes of magical realism in a bleak tale that will absolutely gut you.
When her mother leaves for the United States, 16-year-old Lilya (Oksana Akinshina, in a devastating debut) is left behind in a crumbling post-Soviet housing block. She clings to fleeting moments of escape with her only friend, Volodya, before being lured abroad under false promises—only to be trapped in a trafficking nightmare that shatters what little hope she had.
Shot with raw immediacy, Moodysson captures the stark reality of Lilya’s world while allowing space for moments of grace—dreams, visions, and the fragile resilience of youth. His cinema refuses to reduce her to victimhood alone, instead imbuing her story with dignity, tenderness, and flashes of lyricism amid despair.
A searing indictment of neglect and systemic cruelty, Lilya 4-ever remains one of the most harrowing and unforgettable works of 21st-century European cinema—a film as haunting as it is compassionate.
Lukas Moodysson, Sweden/Denmark, 1997, 109 mins, DCP
Festivals, Awards, & Nominations
Nominee – Best Foreign Film, Film Independent Spirit Awards 2004
Winner – FIPRESCI Prize, Stockholm Film Festival 2002
Winner – Best Actress (Oksana Akinshina) – Gijón International Film Festival 2002
COLD SWEAT – DECEMBER 19 DOUBLE FEATURE
Lilya 4-ever screens in a double feature with Thirteen (2003) as a part of our monthly COLD SWEAT film series that dives deep into the world of horror and cult cinema, offering unexpected, visceral double features designed to raise the hair on the back of your neck and send a chill down your spine.
