How can this happen in the European Paradise?
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Strong_Style — 15 years ago(November 07, 2010 11:00 PM)
I live in America; nobody says this about the EU. I can only guess that you heard right-wing pundits sarcastically referring to Europe, and you didn't pick up on the sarcasm.
It's a mad house, this modern life.
It's a mad house, my faithless bride. -
poem — 15 years ago(November 08, 2010 04:17 AM)
Lilya didnt get help, because the criminal conditioned her to mistrust the police, so she never actually tried talking to them.
Otherwise she would have gotten help, especially since it was Sweden. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark are the countries with the really strong welfare state.
Also yes, what we have in Europe is more of a democracy than the de-facto feudalism to be found in the USA. But its progressing fast toward the same development, even in Sweden.
Our ginis dont look too good either, albeit its still much better than the USA. -
poem — 10 years ago(September 17, 2015 11:53 PM)
Actually they do, they are officially all democracies, just like USA, Russia, Japan the only exception among the powerful countries is China.
Even if they wouldnt, it wasnt referenced anywhere in my posting and isnt relevant.
You shall have no other Kates before Kate Winslet. -
bite_me_loser_86 — 14 years ago(August 02, 2011 09:24 PM)
Oh, please, if you're going to act all smug, at least get your facts right.
Lilja didn't grow up in EU. She grew up in a poor area of the former USSR. Girls like her had no other choice but to 'go downtown and spread their legs' as her aunt said. There was obviously no welfare system in place and no authorities that were going to take care of her.
If she had been living in the EU and been abandoned by her mom, yes authorities would have taken care of her. She would get fed, clothed and a warm house to live in and probably also some pocket money to spend. WHen she turned 18 she would have gotten help finding an apartment. She would not have been forced to prostitute herself. I live in Sweden and something like this couldn't happen to a 16-year-old girl here. For you to not understand that there are considerable differences in living standards between former USSR and the Western European countries just proves that you like many Americans, it seems, view Europe as one homogenous collection of small 'socialist' countries.
But yes, quite a lot of trafficking goes on in Sweden. As it does all over the world, even in your precious USA. That is something authorities are trying to control of course. And young girls like Lilja, if rescued, would definitely not be sent back home, as her pimp scared her into believing. They'd be taken care of. -
turkeyprophet — 13 years ago(April 09, 2012 06:35 AM)
The European Union in not a place it is a union. It's like watching a film about Mexico and then complaining that NAFTA isn't the paradise you were told it was.
Also Estonia wasn't a member of the EU when this film came out so it has none of the privileges that the EU provides. -
thommickel — 13 years ago(April 11, 2012 05:24 AM)
re: "We Americans have been told, repeatedly, that the European Union is a paradise and nearly-perfect society."
Where, exactly, have you ever been told that the EU is a "paradise and nearly-perfect society"?
All I ever read in the U.S. media is lots and lots of Euro-bashing, talking about how America is vastly superior to Europe in every way. And nobody bashes Europe more than the supposedly "Liberal" New York Times.
Of course, the vast, vast majority of Americans have absolutely zero idea of what the rest of the world is like. There is an enormous amount of misinformation that we're told (starting in our abysmal public school systems).
All I ever hear about from the U.S. media is how Europe is a gloomy, depressing, hellish, socialist, economic basket case that is way, way behind America in every respect. -
LadyKosha — 13 years ago(April 24, 2012 12:21 PM)
- Show me a link to anyone of influence who has said the EU is anyone's paradise.
- This is set in Russia and Russia IS NOT IN THE EU!!!
"I still don't understand it, why they hate us so much" - Valerie, V for Vendetta
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ranegonzales — 13 years ago(February 18, 2013 08:30 AM)
Hmmm Not an easy question to answer, but EU is not nearly as perfect as you might think. I live in a quite small town in Finland an I can say: it isn't perfect.
Like in the movie 'Lilja 4-Ever', men give money to Lilja's pimp to have sex with Lilja. This kinds of things happen even in EU. Like in the movie, I've heard those kinds of things happening, and I've also heard that there is some Finnish men, who pay to do something as horrible as that. -
Nikulturny — 12 years ago(April 27, 2013 02:37 PM)
Sarcasm much?
At the time the movie is set - about 2001/2002 - Estonia wasn't a member of the EU. It was still trying to recover from the collapse of the Soviet Union, which it had been a part of, and was struggling financially. It joined the EU on 1 May 2004 and is now fairly prosperous. However, some EU states are relatively poor - the Slovak Republic or Romania, for example, are still well behind Western standards of living despite having been EU states for a few years.
I don't know what social services existed in pre-EU Estonia but I think Lilja must have been 16 during the events of the film, or she would have been taken into government care once they found out she'd been abandoned by her mother. She already had an apartment, her troubles arose because she didn't have any source of money. -
LopiPingstocking — 9 years ago(May 23, 2016 01:38 PM)
Last time I checked Slovakia ranked at #147 in the poorest countries list which was better than Estonia and for the record the UK, for example, ranked at #159.
I know I don't live in the richest country in the world, but the living standard of the majority here is good.
Assuming something general about a country based on a movie is pointless.
Based on some films I've seen, I could assume that everyone in the USA is illiterate and lives in a mobile home or that people in Europe just drink alcohol all the time and have sex or whatever else.