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Ivan's Childhood

May. 09, 1962

01:35:00

7.0

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Genres: Drama, War

Keywords: Child Spy, Orphan, Nude Boy, more

Overview:

In WWII, twelve year old Soviet orphan Ivan Bondarev works for the Soviet army as a scout behind the German lines and strikes a friendship with three sympathetic Soviet officers.

Description

The film is mainly set at the front during World War II, where the Soviet army is fighting the invading German Wehrmacht. The film features a non-linear plot with frequent flashbacks.

After a brief dream sequence, Ivan Bondarev, a 12-year-old Russian boy, wakes up and crosses a war-torn landscape to a swamp, then swims across a river. On the other side, he is seized by Russian soldiers and brought to the young Lieutenant Galtsev, who interrogates him. The boy insists that he call "Number 51 at Headquarters" and report his presence. Galtsev is reluctant, but when he eventually makes the call, he is told by Lieutenant-Colonel Gryaznov to give the boy pencil and paper to make his report, which will be given the highest priority, and to treat him well. Through a series of dream sequences and conversations between different characters, it is revealed that Ivan’s mother and sister (and probably his father, a border guard) have been killed by German soldiers. He got away and joined a group of partisans. When the group was surrounded, they put him on a plane. After the escape, he was sent to a boarding school, but he ran away and joined an army unit under the command of Gryaznov.

Burning for revenge, Ivan insists on fighting on the front line. Taking advantage of his small size, he is successful on reconnaissance missions. Gryaznov and the other soldiers grow fond of him and want to send him to a military school. They give up their idea when Ivan tries to run away and rejoin the partisans. He is determined to avenge the death of his family and others, such as those killed at the Maly Trostenets extermination camp (which he mentions that he has seen).

A subplot involves Captain Kholin and his aggressive advances towards a pretty army nurse, Masha, and Galtsev's own undeclared and probably shared feelings for her. Much of the film is set in a room where the officers await orders and talk, while Ivan awaits his next mission. On the walls are scratched the last messages of doomed prisoners of the Germans.

Finally, Kholin and Galtsev ferry Ivan across the river late at night. He disappears through the swampy forest. The others return to the other shore after cutting down the bodies of two Soviet scouts hanged by the Germans.

The final scenes then switch to Berlin under Soviet occupation after the fall of the Third Reich. Captain Kholin has been killed in action. Galtsev finds a document showing that Ivan was caught and hanged by the Germans. As Galtsev enters the execution room, a final flashback of Ivan's childhood shows the young boy running across a beach after a little girl in happier times. The final image is of a dead tree on the beach.

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Writer: Andrei Konchalovsky Mikhail Papava Vladimir Bogomolov E. Smirnov

Cast: Andrei Konchalovsky Nikolay Burlyaev Valentin Zubkov Nikolay Grinko Yevgeni Zharikov Valentina Malyavina Irma Raush Stepan Krylov Dmitri Milyutenko

Genres: Drama War

Keywords: Child Spy Orphan Nude Boy Nude Young Male Great Patriotic War Childhood Memory Espionage World War Two 1940s Wehrmacht Eastern Front Enemy Lines Cold Operation Reconnaissance Mission Military School Year 1943 Nazi Soldier Russian Soldier Red Army Dream Sequence Soviet Soldier Soviet Military Dead Child 12 Year Old Revenge Female Medical Offier Surrogate Father Surrogate Son Relationship Covert Operation Death Of Family Captain Lieutenant Colonel Reference To A Military School Mother Son Relationship Windmill Prologue Barbed Wire Barracks Feather Old Man Running Away River Forest Woods Kiss Dnieper River Art Book Knife Trench Air Raid Truck Rain Brother Sister Relationship Apple Horse Beach Rowboat Crossing A River Gramophone Artillery Capture Execution Partisan Marsh Death Of A Child Cuckoo Bird Wading Through Water American Based On Novella Lantern Stove Mobile Phone Rear Nudity Bathtub Boy In A Bathtub Food Eating Man Carries A Boy In His Arms Sleep Star Boy Kisses A Man On The Cheek Man Kisses A Boy On The Cheek Giving A Toast Reference To Fyodorovka Swimming Scout Reference To Alexei Tolstoy War Ruins Rooster Chimney Nail German Murder Of Wife Reference To A Chidren's Home Mud Kicking A Can Promise Threat To Whip Crying Boy Reference To Lice Letter Female Lieutenant Reference To Siberia Reference To Moscow Russia Reference To Vasily Surikov Cobweb Fear Arachnophobia Subjective Camera Climbing A Fallen Tree Asking For Forgiveness Periscope Handshake Dead Body Hanging Lie Man Wears Eyeglasses Ex Collegemate Ex Collegemate Relationship Washing One's Face Magazine Engraving Listening To Music German Stereotype Reference To Burning Books Gunner Boat Recording Murder Of Mother Murder Of Sister Murder Of Father Reference To A Border Guard Reference To Adoption Stealing A Boat Vengeance Falling Into Water Flashlight Writing On A Wall Bell Dinghy Reference To God Battlefield Cross Reference To A Boarding School Reflection In A Mirror Reference To The Trostyanets Concentration Camp Mirror Military Headquarters Man Boy Relationship Commander Reverse Negative Horse Eats An Apple Pistol Boy Dresses Child Soldier Boy Soldier Airplane Wreckage Whistling Falling Tree Rifle Man Boy Embrace Saying Goodbye Gunfire Hiding Behind A Tree Snowing Jumping Into Water Throwing A Stool Tossing A Man Into The Air Archive Footage Identifying A Dead Body Reference To Joseph Goebbels Reference To Murder Suicide Burned Corpse Newsreel Footage End Of World War Two Book Voice Over Narration Narrated By Character Shooting Facial Scar Voice Over Dialogue Smiling Boy Wears A Swimsuit Game Playing Girl Boy Wears Shorts Chase Pursuit Running On A Beach Running Bell Ringing Surrealism Based On Short Story Slow Cinema Tying One's Shoelaces Male Undressing End Of War Well Dream Boy Spy Directorial Debut Two Word Title Thinness Long Take Berlin Germany Flashback Climbing A Tree Swamp Stubbornness Stubborn Child Reference To Martin Luther Flare Female Soldier Dripping Water Auditory Hallucination Aspen Murder Of A Family Suicide Young Spy Negative Footage Anti War Devastated Landscape Childhood Child Execution Frontier Bare Chested Boy Male Rear Nudity Cigarette Smoking Lighting A Cigarette From A Cigarette Swastika Reference To Potassium Cyanide

My Name Is Ivan, 伊凡的少年时代, Ivanovo otrostvo, Ivan'in çocuklugu, Ivanovo detinjstvo, Ta paidika hronia tou Ivan, Ivanes bavshvoba, Ivani lapsepõlv, De jeugd van Iwan, Original title: Ivanovo detstvo, Ivanovo detstvo, 伊凡的少年时代, Ivanovo otrostvo, Ivan'in çocuklugu, Ivanovo detinjstvo, Ta paidika hronia tou Ivan, Ivanes bavshvoba, Ivani lapsepõlv, De jeugd van Iwan