The Italian (Итальянец) - Trailer

Russia, Lenfilm, 2005.
Drama.
Writer Andrei Romanov and director Andrei Kravchuk constructed this ingenious, tragicomic tale of a desolate, decaying orphanage in the Russian countryside that sells abandoned kids to prosperous Western Europeans. The adults running the operation live in a haze of greed and alcoholic self--pity; the fatalistic elder orphans are thugs and hookers who accept crime and brutality as their only option in life. In this Dickensian world, nine--year--old Vanya is adopted by an Italian family. With a loving family and freedom in a new country on the horizon he is the envy of his fellow orphans. Yet rather than accept this new life, Vanya flees in search of his birth--mother and the truth of his past. A dual--award winner at the Berlin Film Festival and the 2005 Russian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, The Italian is an elegant and poignant allegory for the moral crisis of Russia's new post--communist generation.
Cast: Nikolay Spiridonov, Marya Kuznetsova, Nikolay Reutov, Yury Itskov, Denis Moiseenko, Andrey Elizarov, Aleksandr Sirotkin, Vladimir Shipov, Polina Vorobjeva, Olga Shuvalova, Dmitry Zemlyanko, Darya Lesnikova, Rudolf Kuld.
Director Andrey Kravchuk.
The Italian - Итальянец

It's a pretty tall order to ask a six-year-old to suddenly take on responsibility for his own life. The questions facing Vanya are really tough: does he want to live a comfortable life as an adopted child of a loving family in Italy? After all, for an abandoned Russian child like Vanya it really doesn't sound like a bad option. Serene life under the Mediterranean sun is awaiting him. But the boy longs to find his own mother, so he decides to set off in search of her. But before he can begin, Vanya must learn to read the file that holds the information he needs to find her. He embarks on his quest--and encounters a mysterious and dangerous world. The world of children is a universe with its own laws; a realm in which sometimes one's heart speaks louder than one's intellect.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Sad
• story
• movie
• italy
• italian
• russia
• russian
• Итальянец
• Love
• drama

[GCLwins]

This movie is a masterpiece.

Should have won the best Foreign Film Academy Award.

A true triumph of the Russian spirit - THIS is how you make a movie.

[mrkv39]

The movie said it was based on a true story - the story of a 6-year old kid doing what this kid did in this movie sounds fantastic.... BUT... the way they show life in an orphanage is very close to reality. They show a regular russian orphanage, not a great one they show-case to officials and not ones that are run by sadists or pedophiles.

[benvin1971]

Esta es una de esas películas que nunca te saldrá de la cabeza ya que es tan real que uno se olvida de que son actores.

[artisticluminiere]

This was a WONDERFUL movie. Cinema at its Best! Incredible performance by that little boy....

[dharmaista]

Beautiful movie. I just watched. Russian film continues to be the best cinema.