February 2005

A January4th article in the Guardian set me looking for information on Lukas Moodysson. It was the following words from the text that interested me,and from whence in my own life this guided me and has always guided me:
A Hole in the Heart: the drama unfolds in a storm of drunken antics and a crush of gynaecological close-ups........I decided not to care if it became exploitative - I wanted to talk about the sexualisation of public spaces; like commercials and the way porn seeps into everybody's living room, but I didn't want to be a part of it. ... I realised I couldn't draw that line so the film becomes part of what it's talking about. It's a symptom not a diagnosis.... The reason I'm a film maker is that I realise I am deeply conflicted in my feelings about things. Porn? When we were mwking this film I watched quite a lot of things, but it became too much. I became so ill and now I feel less interested than I have ever been in my life, It was like an exorcism........(Xan Brooks:The film,"he makes it sound like an orphanage":)....Yes, that's right. I see this fi;m as an orphanage That's what it is, an orphanage....................The recent films are standing on the side of the outsider...........There's a well inside of me, I don't know what's in it.......... try to listen out for things, accidents, coincidences and hidden messages. I am a person who always finds photographs on the street and I think they are messages for me. There really are messages. It's like walking through a landscape and that everywhere I go there are messages.

His most recent film is:
Hål i mitt hjärta, Ett (2004)A Hole in my Heart:Plot Outline: A contemporary drama focusing on a father and son and two family friends He said at a showing :" Many years ago I watched a movie from a russian guy. At the time i didnt like it. Even fell asleep during it. Cant remember the title. Now, years later, it is one of my favorite movies. After watching "Ett hål i mitt hjärta" , dont place it in a good/bad booth. Wait 5-10 years before you make up your mind. I think its a comedy, but some of you will disagree. Enjoy the movie."

Terrorister - en film om dom dömda (2003)Plot Summary: A feature-length documentary, possibly focusing, at least in part, on the recent anti-globalisation protests in Gothenburg, Sweden and the alleged police misconduct during the protests. The first film to be made by the appeal group 'Swedish Film Workers for Peace and Freedom in an Independent Palestine'.
Comment by critic, internet : This is a film that everyone who lives in Sweden should watch. The film shows the political riots who took place in Gothenburg in 2001 from a new perspective. It features interviews with those who were convicted where those people gets the first chance after the riots, to tell their side of the story and why they think the world can be a so much better place to live in and be a part of. I react emotionally when I see this, since I just feel so mad about how those people were treated both during the riots but also after the riots.



Lilja 4-ever (2002)Plot Summary: Lilja is 16 years old. Her only friend is the young boy Volodja. They live in a poor village in Estonia..fantisizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej. He is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life."Childhood is greatly sacrificed in the world today. Children are very much the weak link of the chain. If you want to study the world you should study the most vulnerable parts of the world."- Lukas Moodysson

According to director Lukas Moodysson (Show Me Love, Together), heaven is where you jump around with wings on your back and play basketball all day. On earth, however, it's another story. Ask Lilya (Oksana Akanshina), the main protagonist in Moodysson's powerful but despairing new Russian-language feature, Lilya 4-Ever. The Lars Von Trier and Dogme 95 influence is quite apparent in the exaggerated use of the hand-held camera and the film's portrayal of women as victims of abusive men.

16-year old Lilya (Oksana Akinshina) lives in a small, unnamed city in the Soviet Union. When her mother abandons her and moves to the United States, an aunt puts her up in a run-down flat then refuses to have anything more to do with her. Her only friend is young Volodya (Artyom Bogucharsky) who lives on the streets and attaches himself to Lilya. They hang around together and fantasize about a better life. Her only hope for survival lies in selling her body. Surprisingly, Lilya falls in love with a young good-looking guy named Andrei who appears to be honest and caring. When she follows him to Sweden to start a new life, however, the ugly realities become all too apparent.

The performances by the young actors are outstanding and Mr. Moodysson again displays his talent for depicting teenagers in a very real and natural way. The film is shown from Lilya's point of view and Oksana's ability to portray a wide range of emotions allows the audience to identify with her plight and ride the waves along with her.

Lilya 4-Ever effectively illuminates the worldwide problem of child prostitution and is not afraid to tackle hard issues without any attempt at sugarcoating. I feel, however, that it would have been more effective if Moodysson didn't insist on being so relentlessly hopeless and sensational. The film does not explore the humanity of the characters but uses them only as props to drive home a particular point of view. The characters either are disgusting old men, ruthless exploiters, unfeeling and selfish parents or relatives, or innocent victims.

Mr. Moodysson has brought a very real problem to light but does not show us any way out. Indeed, he seems to be saying that since adults are abusive and God won't listen to our prayers, the only hope left is to sign up to play basketball with our wings on. In spite of a sincere effort, I found Lilya 4-Ever to be predictable and the ending pretentious and sophomoric.

.............

A couple of years ago, Swedish poet-turned-filmmaker Lukas Moodysson ("Fucking Amal") made international film critics' best-of lists for his hilarious second feature, "Together." An exuberant send-up of '70s radicalism and hippie life, "Together" was truly enjoyable to watch. One can't exactly say that about his riskier third film, "Lilya 4-Ever," which Newmarket Films opened on Friday.

Lilya explores the brutal poverty in Russia's housing projects -- the bleak underbelly of its post-Soviet, newly capitalistic façade -- and the requisite dream of escape. It's a place so desperate that even a mother would forsake her child for the promise of a new life. That's what happens to 16-year-old Lilya (played by Oksana Akinshina), who is forced to survive by any means necessary when her mother heads to the U.S. with an American husband. Lilya's a pretty girl, looking for her own way out. Her quick descent from glue-sniffing and living in the projects, to prostitution and the road-to-hell is filled with relentless inhumanity that pummels the viewer like the hard-driving metal from Eastern Europe on the film's soundtrack. When Lilya carves her name in a bench -- a small, typically adolescent rebellion -- it is not just a reminder of her childish naivete, but also one of the few acts of self she is allowed in a world where she has become a commodity. Akinshina's and 11-year old newcomer Artiom Bogucharsky's (Volodya) extraordinary performances carry the film, lending depth to recurring fantasy sequences -- though there is no escape. They are doomed children, and we know it.

Interview excerpts indymedia:::Finding the right actor for a part is the most important aspect, and it requires a lot of time and energy. We interviewed something like a thousand children and teenagers. Screen tests included improvisations on pretty basic themes such as: "You haven't done your homework, so you've been grounded, and now you're trying to convince your mother/father to let you go out after all." I guess I trust my instincts. I don't think I'm the greatest director in the world, but I am good at casting.

iW: Did the two of them have any previous acting experience?

Moodysson: Oksana had been in a movie prior to "Lilya." Artiom didn't have any prior experience. Their backgrounds and their real-life situations are very different than the characters they portrayed. Both have acted in several movies and/or TV series after they made "Lilya."

The script was carefully written in Swedish and then it was translated into Russian. And often we followed the script to the letter. But when the cast and I were in a good mood, there could be a lot of improv as well.

iW: Had you traveled in the former Soviet Union previously?

Moodysson: Yes, a little, but not extensively. I really like Russia. I used to root for the USSR in ice hockey when I was a boy. The usually beat Sweden 10-0. My maternal grandmother's grandmother came from Russia, which makes me 6.25 percent Russian, and I take great pride in that tiny part of my heritage...................Mainly this is a film about Sweden and the affluent societies of the world. How we exploit and violate and kill poor people. This entire process was triggered by a photo of a lost little child running along the streets of my hometown. The fact that the project evolved into a film about a Russian girl was due to reality. I believe that most of the women and children who end up in circumstances like this in Sweden come from the Baltic countries..........There's not a lot of rehearsal. Rehearsing can make things stale, you lose the natural and spontaneous energy..............Young people are more honest, up-front, brave and vulnerable, and they face the world with their eyes open. The years hopefully make you wiser, but your imagination is stunted and you lose a certain type of courage. But I don't choose a certain perspective, it just happens. I don't have a clue why, I guess I should go to a therapist and find out -- but I don't. I make films instead. I'm not particularly interested in probing the depths of my soul; I'm more into probing the world around me..........."Lilya" is a statement about human dignity, a quality that is constantly being eroded and corrupted in the world today by forces like political systems and a materialistic culture that allows anything and everything to be bought or sold.
interview B.Hess of Amnesty InternationalWhat is your response to people who find the subject matter too disturbing to want to be confronted with it?
My response is that the world is difficult and upsetting. People can pretend my film doesn't exist in the same way they close their eyes for what's going on in the world. But that means they're not taking their responsibility. If you have a chance to say something you should..........I'm extremely critical to the neoliberalist global capitalism which is holding the world in its iron grip today. But I also see alternatives. I'm an optimist. I believe in change.
It's precisely these enormous economical gaps created by capitalism that are the reason trafficking is such a growing problem in the world today. Prostitution is about poverty and lack of power. Desperate and humiliated human beings are doing all they can in order to survive......the work of Amnesty Internationals is extremely important. I feel very positive about you. I might possibly feel that you sometimes aren't subversive enough, that you prefer dialogue instead of conflict - but at the same time I realise that it's probably necessary for you to work in this very fashion....................

BIOGRAPHY - Lukas Moodysson

Full Name: Karl Frederik Lukas Moodysson

Lukas Moodysson was born January 17, 1969 in Lund ( South Sweden)

LM: My family were farmers, hard-working farmers in a place called Småland. Småland in Swedish means small land, and it was a difficult place where the ground was full of stones. Then in the 60s my father had the chance to study to become an engineer. He came to the university town of Lund, which is where I was born. He met my mother, who is also from Småland – her father worked in a hardware store. I don't think they were exceptionally alternative in their lifestyle, but they were influenced by the leftist movement.

About Tillsammans; LM: I was the fat neigbour boy watching the Tillsammans movement. A lot of memories from my childhood are in this movie.

LM: When I was 10 or 12 years old Fanny and Alexander was an important film for me. I related very strongly to Alexander – I had the same experience in that my parents also got divorced (in the late seventies).

At 17, He published a collection of poetry, Det spelar ingen roll var blixtarna slår ner (It doesn't matter where the lightning strikes, and then dropped out of school. LM: "I thought it was boring. I just didn’t fit in." He wrote four more anthologies and a novel by age 23 and then he dropped poetry for film. LM :I wanted to do anything else. I just wanted to change everything. I started to get less interested in myself and more interested in the rest of the world. I think as a poet I was really self-absorbed.

He then went to study at the Swedish film school Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm. (See for the movies and other achievements for the rest of his career). He wrote the poem that appears when Elin disturbs Agnes’ computer

He is an active promoter of vegetarianism, being one himself. The crisps Jessica eats in the film are Sourcream and Onion flavour, his favourite. He likes lots of different types of music, particularly Morrissey, from whom he takes his life's motto:

It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes guts to be gentle and kind

Back then, Moodysson, who started his creative journey as a poet, alienated many Swedes by his stroppy 'anti-elitist' speech when he was voted best director at the Swedish film awards. In a meandering tirade, he informed the audience that they shouldn't eat meat, that the rich should pay high taxes and, that film did not belong in an opera house full of fat cats in tuxedos. He was booed, and stormed off stage, index finger raised. (He did not, though, give back the elitist award.) For a while, he says, he was 'the most hated man in Sweden', a title that still bemuses rather than ruffles him.

Moodysson, then, is a self-styled iconoclast whose self-belief is unwavering. He grew up in what he once described as 'an average, normal, Ikea kind of family', and has now settled with his wife and two sons in the suburbs of Malmo. His Christian beliefs are deep but not, he is quick to point out, 'in any way fundamentalist': 'The feeling that someone is watching over me is the deepest of all the deep feelings that I have.' His conversation is peppered with this kind of seriousness.

Having found some success as a poet, Moodysson turned to photography, then film, in his late twenties, as a means of reaching a wider, less elitist - that word again -audience.....................

'I feel I have strong personal need to deal with some things through my art,' he replies. 'Initially, if I was being honest, it is an egotistical need. I sit and listen to the world and let ideas spin and grow in my head. Then I take one more step and it becomes political. That's just what happens. I honestly think a film can be intensely personal even to the point of mysterious, and still be overtly political. Like Tarkovsky,' he continues, namechecking another influence.

'In this instant, though, I do not really care if people understand the religious aspects or not, but I really do want them to understand the political one. I would like people to leave the cinema angry and let that anger lead to some kind of action. Then,' he adds, smiling for the first time since the interview started, 'I would know that I was really a political filmmaker'. Guardian2003

Serbia losing its cinema history
By Matt Prodger
BBC News, Belgrade


Millions of metres of film could be lost forever

As a country Serbia and Montenegro is neither large nor wealthy, and yet it has two of the biggest archives of newsreel and feature films in the world.

But years of neglect and a lack of money mean that some valuable and unique items of visual history are now being lost.

Beside a busy, rainswept highway in Belgrade lie the shabby offices of Filmske Novosti, the old Yugoslav newsreel archive. Deep in the basement is almost 100 years of history on 15 million metres of film.

Images of the field battles of World War I, the communist partisans of World War II, a unique visual record of the Non-Aligned Movement born in the 1960s, Tito's Yugoslavia, Gaddafi's Libya, Nasser's Egypt...

Yet these images will soon be lost forever, because Filmske Novosti is in crisis.

Cramped conditions

The corridors are lined with teetering stacks of film cans. There is so little space that the staff pile them anywhere they can - even in the toilet and the kitchen. The air is damp, the cans rusting, the temperature far too high for the delicate film.

The basic problem is finding the money
Miodrag Perisic

The Serbian government lacks the money to maintain the collection. Archivist Miodrag Perisic says that appeals for help from abroad have fallen on deaf ears.

"The reaction has been poor," he says.

"The only answer is 'We can help you'. But even then it's only to offer know-how, advice, and nothing more than that.

"We need help to maintain, to really refresh, this archive and to get new technology. The basic problem is finding the money to do so. It's heart-breaking.''

Feature films

It is not just news footage that is under threat.

An ageing building hidden in woodland on the outskirts of Belgrade houses some 100,000 feature films: one of the biggest collections in the world.

Among them are films like Karadjordje, the epic tale of the man who freed Serbs from Ottoman rule. It was the first film to be made in the Balkans - in 1911 - and was painstakingly restored abroad.

The situation is really very tough
Dinko Tucakovic

Dinko Tucakovic from the Yugoslav Film Archives shows off a priceless Lumiere camera, one of the first, and a Charlie Chaplin cane donated by the actor's granddaughter. But neither eases his worries about the rest of the archive.

"The situation is really very tough," he says.

"First of all our country has major economic problems, and film archiving is very expensive anywhere in the world.

"The second problem is we don't have proper space for storage. And at the moment the most serious problem is we're understaffed - heavily understaffed."

Just five people are in charge of maintaining and repairing thousands of films. Just how many they do not know, because they have not had time to count. At the current rate it will take decades to go through them.

Meanwhile a large part of film history is destined for the bin.