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Ivan's Childhood

Play trailer Poster for Ivan's Childhood 1963 1h 37m Drama War Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 26 Reviews 93% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
When Nazi invaders destroy his Russian village and kill his family, 12-year-old Ivan (Kolya Burlyayev) is placed in a German prison camp. Ivan escapes from the camp and crosses back over to Russia, and comes under the care of Capt. Kholin (Valentin Zubkov), who wants to send Ivan to military school. Ivan refuses, requesting that he be allowed to use his powers of stealth to return to Germany to spy on the Nazis and avenge the killing of his family.
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Ivan's Childhood

Ivan's Childhood

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Critics Consensus

Ostensibly an atypical Tarkovsky work (less than 100 minutes!), Ivan's Childhood carries the poetry and passion that would characterize the director from here on.

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Critics Reviews

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Geoffrey Macnab Independent (UK) Tarkovsky pays full attention to the squalor and pity of war but never loses his sense of poetry. Rated: 5/5 May 19, 2016 Full Review Peter Bradshaw Guardian Unmissable. Rated: 5/5 May 19, 2016 Full Review Tom Huddleston Time Out No other director is simultaneously so precise and so otherworldly. Rated: 5/5 May 16, 2016 Full Review JD Duran InSession Film It’s well directed, well acted, well shot, well scored and almost perfect in every way. As a directorial debut, it really doesn’t get better than this. Rated: A Aug 1, 2024 Full Review Dave Giannini InSession Film Yes, there is heroism, risk, and goodness in many of the characters in the film. But there is absolutely no lionization... Rated: A- Feb 28, 2024 Full Review Tim Brayton Alternate Ending One of the greatest anti-war films of the 1960s. Rated: 4/5 May 10, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Giuseppe F Poetic masterpiece. Absolutely a must seen movie Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/25/24 Full Review Leaburn This film was quite good 👍🏼 Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 11/30/22 Full Review Christopher B A beautifully filmed masterpiece with stunning cinematography and a great story with powerful performances, make this a wonderful work to behold. The debut film from Andrei Tarkovsky is a real gem and was a true moment of arrival for Tarkovsky in the world of cinema. He would go on to make many masterpieces that are towering works of art! This a simple story of childhood in wartime, is deeply moving and powerful. It's so universal in it's telling of the human condition and specifically how war ravages everyone and the devastating impacts on children. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/28/22 Full Review William L Tarkovsky's first feature film sidesteps the active, 'hot' parts of warfare to emphasize the chilling moments of quiet between the bullets when the mind starts to wander. The director implements the dreamlike atmosphere that would become his most prominent trademark in later years to present a jagged and fractured narrative in emulation of his protagonist's psyche, caught between the happy memories of his earlier years and the cruel vengeances that he now doggedly seeks as a front-line scout; in the warmer years of the Khrushchev Thaw, Ivan is now a victim of a larger conflict fighting with venom as his fuel, rather than a dogged youth who overcomes adversity through the hot-blooded beating heart of communism in his chest. Devastating and tragic without being in the least bit superficially violent, Ivan's Childhood is simultaneously dirty and beautifully shot even though it lacks anything in the way of grand tracking shots, with Tarkovsky's cinematography conveying an almost alien nature to the landscape in his efforts to display a world of conflict that molds and reshapes the innocent mind into something far more warped and irredeemable. One of the most accomplished feature directorial debuts of all time, with elements that would continued to be refined in Tarkovsky's later masterpieces. (4/5) Rated 4 out of 5 stars 06/19/22 Full Review Audience Member My second favorite film of all time, and I'm a 52-year-old movie junkie. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review dave s Other than Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, it's difficult to think of a more accomplished directorial debut than Andrei Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood. Set on the Russian front during World War 2 as the German army advances, a young Russian boy seeks revenge for the killing of his family by conducting reconnaissance work for the Russian army. Other than a handful of POV shots that feel out of place, Tarkovsky shows his mastery of composition with a steady stream of beautifully framed shots of the theater of war mixed with sometimes surreal flashbacks of Ivan's childhood. It's a beautiful film that foreshadowed the greatness of what was to come from Tarkovsky. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis When Nazi invaders destroy his Russian village and kill his family, 12-year-old Ivan (Kolya Burlyayev) is placed in a German prison camp. Ivan escapes from the camp and crosses back over to Russia, and comes under the care of Capt. Kholin (Valentin Zubkov), who wants to send Ivan to military school. Ivan refuses, requesting that he be allowed to use his powers of stealth to return to Germany to spy on the Nazis and avenge the killing of his family.
Director
Andrei Tarkovsky
Production Co
Mosfilm, Tret'e Tvorcheskoe Obedinenie
Genre
Drama, War
Original Language
Russian
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 29, 2011
Runtime
1h 37m
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