Moodysson followed up these two sunny, cheerfully optimistic films with the brutal Lilya 4-ever in 2002, included in many American critics' top ten lists the following year. The mainly Russian language film follows a girl living in an unspecified country in the former Soviet Union (filmed in Estonia) as she is abandoned by her mother, drops out of school, is forced into prostitution, and then is kidnapped into sex slavery. Moodysson has said he could not have made the film without his strong Christian beliefs. The frequent religious fantasies that Lilja has are the only tender spots in the bleak world Moodysson presents. At the time of its release, critic Dave Kehr of The New York Times declared Moodysson to be "Sweden's most praised filmmaker since Ingmar Bergman".
Moodysson followed up these two sunny cheerfully optimistic films with the brutal Lilya 4-ever in 2002, included in many American critics' top ten lists the following year. The mainly Russian language film follows a girl living in an unspecified country in the former Soviet Union (filmed in Estonia) as she is abandoned by her mother, drops out of school, is forced into prostitution, and then is kidnapped into sex slavery. Moodysson has said he could not have made the film without his strong Christian beliefs. The frequent religious fantasies that Lilja has are the only tender spots in the bleak world Moodysson presents. At the time of its release, critic Dave Kehr of The New York Times declared Moodysson to be "Sweden's most praised filmmaker since Ingmar Bergman".