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| A nasty thorny plant makes up an overwhelming, ominous dark background to an image of two children on this poster for Andrei Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood |
Ivan is a boy in the Soviet Union during World War II. His mother and sister are murdered, and his father is gone. Ivan wants to serve as a soldier, but he is not permitted. He survives in a ruthless world of mud, cold and darkness.
Ivan's Childhood is written by Vladimir Bogomolov (Zosya (1967)), Mikhail Papava (Ivan Pavlov (1949)), Andrey Konchalovskiy (House of Fools/Dom durakov (2002)) and Russian master filmmaker, co-writer/director Andrei Tarkovsky (The Steamroller and the Violin/Katok i skripka (1961)), whose 2nd feature it is. It is based on Bogomolov's short story Ivan (1957). The title is a literal translation of the original Russian one.
Ivan has terrible nightmares, when he sleeps. The film is unique and highly worth searching out, especially for its ethereal images (cinematography by Vadim Yusov (Solaris (1972))) and Nikolay Burlyaev's (Russkaya ruletka (1990)) gripping performance as Ivan, a strikingly mature child performance for the ages.
Related posts:
Andrei Tarkovsky: Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Andrei Rublev/Andrey Rublev/Андрей Рублёв (1966) - Tarkovsky's undying epic of faith in Russia
Watch a fan-made trailer for the film here
Cost: Unknown but projected 200k $
Box office: Unknown but at lest 4.64 mil. $ and projected at 6 mil. $
= Uncertain but likely a mega-hit (projected return of 30 times its cost)
[Ivan's Childhood premiered 6 April (Moscow) and runs 94 minutes. Tarkovsky took over the project, which had been shooting under director Eduard Abalov, whose material was then discarded. Tarkovsky was reportedly put in charge and finished the film in 8 months, 24k rubles under budget. Shooting took place from June 1961 - January 1962 in what was then the Soviet Union and is today Ukraine. The film was among Tarkovsky's most successful in terms of box office, selling a reported 16.7 mil. tickets in the USSR, coming to approximately 4.17 mil. rubles, approximately 4.64 mil. $. The film was released widely internationally, although gross details are regrettably not available online; a 6 mil. $ final gross is projected. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was the Soviet nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar of the year, however it did not ultimately receive a nomination. Tarkovsky returned with Andrei Rublev/Andrey Rublyov (1966). Burlaev returned in Sud sumasshedshikh (1962). Ivan's Childhood is fresh at 100 % with an 8.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Ivan's Childhood?
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