Lilya 4-ever

I really don't want to, but if you insist...

Lilya (Oksana Akinshina) is a 16-year-old girl living in the slums of the former Soviet Union. As the film opens, she is enjoying life as best she can, but is really looking forward to moving to America with her mother.

But then her mother leaves poor Lilya to fend for herself. And her only other relative is abusive towards her, saying the only thing she can do is prostitute herself. This Lilya does, and she also starts squatting in a flat with a local boy named Volodya.

A momentary bright spot does appear: she gets a boyfriend named Andrei, who offers her a passport to Sweden so she can be with him. But all is not as it seems: he's really a child trafficker, and she's just been sentenced to a lifetime of prostitution.

And it can only go downhill from there...

This movie provides examples of:

Abusive Parents: Volodya's dad.
Break the Cutie
Break the Haughty: Lilya is by no means humble during the beginning of the film.
Cassandra Truth: Volodya. Granted, his warnings about Andrei probably were based on jealousy, but in the end, he was right.
Crapsack World
Despair Event Horizon
Disappeared Dad: Lilya's father abandoned her mother as soon as she told her she was pregnant.
Downer Ending: And how.
- Could also be viewed as a Bittersweet Ending, though.
Driven to Suicide: Lilya and Volodya, whether or not it worked for the former is left ambiguous.
Foregone Conclusion
Guardian Angel: Volodya becomes Lilya's guardian angel after his suicide.
Hey It's That Girl: The star, Oksana Akinshina, was the Russian girl at the end of The Bourne Supremacy.
Inspired By: In this case, apparently a story about a child prostitute.
It Got Worse: The movie!
Never Got to Say Goodbye: Lilya leaves Volodya on his own without ever telling him goodbye.
Parental Abandonment: Lilya's father only courted her mother to sleep with her, and then proceeded to move to Moscow and sever all ties he had with her mother once she told him he was pregnant. Lilya's mother abandons her when she moves to America with her new boyfriend, and her Aunt (who was told to watch over Lilya after her mother left), while not necessarily moving away or anything, does essentially leave her to her own devices, telling her to whore herself out if she needs money to keep the electricity in her flat.
Parental Substitute: Lilya (temporarily) becomes this for Volodya. Lilya's aunt is supposed to be this for her, but she gives up rather quickly.
Rape As Drama
- A horrifying seventeen on-screen occasions.
Trauma Conga Line: The entire movie is this for Lilya.
Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: Lilya smokes, drinks, huffs glue, and prostitutes herself.