Lillian (2019)

Directed by: Andreas Horvath | 128 minutes | drama | Actors: Patrycja Planik

Moans in the background, a screen with several pornographic images on it. “Welcome to this interview, Lillian. You want to become a porn actress? Unfortunately, your visa has expired and you don’t speak a word of English. Your photos are beautiful, but they are more for a modeling agency. We make hard porn here. You know, if I were you I’d go back to Russia.” The immigrant Lillian, who has been living illegally in New York for six months, takes this advice to heart and after extensive preparations (she puts a large jar with what looks like cheese nibbles in her backpack) she leaves. On foot. To Russia. On shoes that are even less suitable for this than the too small hiking boots from Reese Witherspoon in ‘Wild’.

Andreas Horvath’s ‘Lillian’ is slightly based on the story of the real-life Lillian Alling, who attempted to walk from New York to Russia in 1926. Tradition does not say whether she ever made it. This film version of Lillian is set in the present tense, which makes it easier for the main character to survive on the one hand, and more bears on the road on the other. In any case, we experience her journey through the barren, beautiful, breathtaking and at the same time repulsive landscape through the help of the ever-silent Russian woman. This is America at its largest and smallest: a bit like Roberto Minervini films the continent.

We witness the struggles of a lonely woman who has no food, shelter or change with her, but saves herself by sniffing in garbage cans and clothing containers, breaking into abandoned houses or stealing from second-hand shops. She meets locals, Americans on the margins of society, but she has no connection with any of them. It finds no kindness, but also – with one exception – no pronounced hostility. It is clear: her future is not here. Whether she enjoys the sometimes unparalleled surroundings as much as the viewer: we cannot find out. Lillian remains an enigma. That makes it all the more beautiful that you still care about her.

Thanks to the director’s photographic insight, the rhythmic editing and the documentary-like scenes, ‘Lillian’ is a poetic road trip, at the same time stripped of and laced with romance, however contradictory that may sound. The virtually plotless film never feels as improvised as it was made, but on the contrary extremely well thought out and efficient. ‘Lillian’ continues to fascinate every minute, there is not a fragment too much. Patrycja Planik – with no acting experience – is extremely natural and convincing; her Lillian is an unforgettable character and an excellent guide to today’s North America.