YMMV / Lilya 4-ever

• Angst Aversion: This is a notoriously bleak movie about a teenage girl's downward spiral into prostitution and sex slavery, with any hope of her finding happiness constantly being crushed, all while being betrayed by her friends and family. And the scenes of Lilya being mistreated and raped are extremely hard to watch.
• Fridge Horror:
  • What if Lilya's mother was forced to abandon Lilya and write that nasty letter by Sergei? She couldn't look Lilya in the eye and her voice was shaking when she told her that she and Sergei were going to America first, and she was sobbing when she and Sergei drove off. If Lilya was truly unwanted, then her mum wouldn't be that emotional about leaving her, right?
  • Given the similarities of their respective departures, it's possible that Lilya's mother may have fallen victim to the same sex-trafficking scam as Lilya does later on. Her crying upon leaving Lilya in this case would be genuine as Sergei would have pressured her into leaving, and the letter sent later on may have been either written by her under duress or not written by her at all, rather by Sergei or some other party seeking to cut off any loose ends lest Lilya's mother's disappearance get investigated by authorities (not that such would have happened in 1990s Eastern Europe, but Sweden and America would be different).
  • And Lilya would probably have seen it coming, had their relationship been that shitty. Who waits until their kid is sixteen to tell them they were unwanted all along anyway?
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • While abandoning her daughter alone might have been bad, Lilya's mother truly crosses the horizon when she sends in a letter explaining that Lilya was an unwanted child, and that she no longer wants to be considered her legal guardian.
  • Aunt Anna crosses it when it's revealed that she kicked Lilya out of her old home and into the run down old flat just so that she could have it for herself.
  • Andrei crosses it when he hands Lilya over to a pimp.
  • Lilya's male "friends" cross it when they break into her flat and gang-rape her.
• Tear Jerker: Lilya running after her mother and begging her not to leave in the beginning.

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