Lilja 4-ever (Lukas Moodysson, 2002)

You may criticise this for being a lecture instead of a film. But the devices of film are nevertheless integrated; there's a splash of Fellini, another of Satyajit Ray. It's uncertain whether Moodysson, with his autodidact attitude, has ever seen those potential influences. So much the better.
It's harsh. Harsher than harsh. A teenage Russian girl in a suburb of Tallinn gets shat on by her mother, her family and a succession of men. But the great angle that Moodysson pulls on the whole sorry tale is for once making us look at an incredibly foul issue, enforced prostitution, from the victim's point of view, and taking us so deep into her life that we see from her perspective. The average sincere documentary only looks at it from our viewpoint. Here, we become the viewpoint. Von Trier may be outraged at how women are treated by abusive patriarchal society, but he metaphorises. This actually feels real. It's quite an accomplishment.

8/10