In Russia, Every Orphan Longs for Adoption. Vanya Has Other Plans...To Find His Mother At All Costs
Set in 2002, an abandoned 5-year-old boy living in a rundown orphanage in a small Russian village is adopted by an Italian family.
Genre(s): Drama, Family
Runtime: 90 minutes
Rating: 7.5/10 (1,623 votes)
Release Date: 14 February 2005
Country: Russia
Languages: Russian
Company: Lenfilm Studio
Sound: Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some violence, sexual content, language and thematic issues.
Director(s): Andrei Kravchuk
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Producer(s):
Olga Agrafenina - executive producer
Andrei Zertsalov - producer
Writer(s):
Andrei Romanov - writer
Cast:
Kolya Spiridonov - Vanya Solntsev
Mariya Kuznetsova - Madam
Nikolay Reutov - Grisha
Jurij Ickov - Headmaster
Denis Moiseenko - Kolyan
Sasha Sirotkin - Sery
Polina Vorobieva - Nataha
Olga Shuvalova - Irka
Dima Zemlyanko - Anton
Dariya Lesnikova - Mukhin's Mother
Music: Aleksandr Knaifel
Olga Agrafenina - executive producer
Andrei Zertsalov - producer
Writer(s):
Andrei Romanov - writer
Cast:
Kolya Spiridonov - Vanya Solntsev
Mariya Kuznetsova - Madam
Nikolay Reutov - Grisha
Jurij Ickov - Headmaster
Denis Moiseenko - Kolyan
Sasha Sirotkin - Sery
Polina Vorobieva - Nataha
Olga Shuvalova - Irka
Dima Zemlyanko - Anton
Dariya Lesnikova - Mukhin's Mother
Music: Aleksandr Knaifel
Posted on: November 21, 2008
February 13th, 2007
The Italian/Italianetz is a good use of neorealistic effects almostworthy of Zavattini and De Sica to tell the story of a Russian orphanat the present time, a boy of six who's set up for adoption by anItalian couple and then determines to sneak off and see if he can findhis own mother instead. Arranging adoptions on a freelance basis,apparently, outside the chaotic social system of present-day Russia, isa lady they call Madam (Mariya Koznetsova), plump, bossy, slick,followed around by a glum factotum, Grisha (Nikolai Reutov), who's herchauffeur, toady, and sometime lover. She makes a bundle out of eachsuccessful adoption by foreigners and makes free with bribes andthreats to be sure her deals go through. A product of modern Russiancapitalism, the money-mad Madam is more villain than fairy godmother.
Using a photo followed up by an on-site interview at the detsky dom(children's home), Madam has arranged with an Italian couple, Robertoand Claudia, to adopt young Vanya Sonetsiv (Kolya Spridonov). But thenwhen Vanya meets up with a remorseful drunken mom who apparentlycommits suicide after learning her child has been adopted and taken toIaly, he gets the urge to investigate his own record. Everybody actslike he's such a lucky guy. But supposing he goes off with Roberto andClaudia? Mightn't he miss out on a chance to be reunited with his ownmother, should she have a change of heart and want him back? Is theresuch a chance, though? And where is his mother? To find out, firstVanya has to learn to read – a detail the orphanage has neglected – andfind a way to get a look at his file.
The detsky dom's administration is not exactly on the up-and-up. Thewild looking director (Yuri Itskov) is drinking up all the funds, andto fill in the vacuum this leaves a small clique of older boys topretty much run the place and its finances, like a rawly capitalisticpetty mafia, sporting scars, tattoos and muscles and throwing aroundwords like "cosa nostra." Led by a boy named Kolyan (Denis Moiseenko),they have their own little systems of businesses and payoffs. And thisshadow regime, up to a point anyway, really seems to work. The kids'beds are clean, and the girls mend their clothes and read them fairytales at bedtime. But it's clear there's no pathway to a better futurein the life here. Vanya, whom everybody now calls "the Italian" becauseof the good fortune they feel he's destined for when the papers gothrough in a month or so, now wangles his way in with the older boys,and they help him out. Among these undergrown mafiosi is a girl namedIrka (Olga Shuvalova) who they pimp out to truck drivers. It's she whoteaches Vanya to read. The big boys help Vanya break into the roomwhere the records are kept and he gets the address of the maternal homewhere he came from, and Irka takes Vanya to the railway station, havingrobbed the boys' current till and intending to run off with him. Madamimmediately finds out that Vanya has disappeared and, standing to loseher payoff if she can't deliver him to the Italian couple, she sets offin hot pursuit with Grisha.
What follows is a wild chase in which Vanya shows what he's made of.Nothing, and that includes some pretty rough scrapes, can stop him fromhis relentless flight and quest.
The Italian never loses its authentic flavor either as it moves towardan emotionally satisfying if somewhat hasty finish Still, it'sobviously in the first half of the film that we get our best look atthis world and its people and the Russian orphan problem. It might evenhave been a better treatment of that issue if some of the earlierscenes had been allowed to play out a bit longer.
The San Francisco Chronicle's venerable Ruthe Stein called this thebest "naturalistic performance by a Russian child actor since Kolya adecade ago." Spiridonov is very effective and appealing in his role,and perhaps The Italian has some links with that somewhat saccharineearlier film. But The Italian is more chastening than Kolya. A moreappropriate recent comparison (and another great youth performance inRussian) is the picaresque, unpredictable Schizo (2004), directed byGuldchat Omarova with the 15-year-old Oldzhas Nusupbayev. The Italianisn't saccharine, but it's also not as grim a view of the plight oflost Russian children as Lukas Moodysson's deeply depressing 2002 filmLilja 4-Ever. See all four and decide for yourself which feels like themost convincing and cinematic story of Russian childhood. You'll haveto consider whether Kravchuk undercuts or strengthens his material byturning it into a fairy tale.
It was the urge to depict a growing social problem and at the same timetell an engaging story that must have drown a documentarian likeKravchuk to this subject. He has worked well with his non-actors andhis writer Andrei Romanov, and Aleksandr Burov has provided a misty,subtly colored cinematography.
May 21st, 2007
Somewhat dull Russian film touches on a few poignant topics centeringaround a young orphan's adoption dilemma, but rarely achieves theemotional pull it should have. Mainly taking place inside and around anaging orphanage, the initial introduction to the gentle dynamics insidethis home feel mediocre at best. Whether most performances lackedcharisma, the poor translation from the Russian script, or an unhealthydisconnect between audio and video synchronicity made the film more ofa bore, I'm sure it was a combination of the three which effectivelyrendered most potentially moving scenes lukewarm.
The Italian, on paper, reads with noble intentions. But played out, thefilm feels surprisingly melodramatic and manipulative. The film's mainactor, a young boy named Kolya Spiridonov, may look the part but cannotcarry the demanded weight. Springing from uncomfortable post-editing,there usually feels like an unintentional eeriness surrounds the boywhile observing his performance. The pain one abandoned child wouldharbor is completely relevant to this story, but Spiridonov clearly hasnot been given enough coaching to prepare for the part, and instead itfeels like the filmmakers substituted one negative emotion for a lessauthentic one.
Picking up a considerable amount once our young star actually proceedsto undergo his brief journey, it is already too late in the act tostart building momentum that was needed earlier. It all amounts to oneof those unfortunate circumstances where a heavy, underlying relevancefound in potent themes ends up being trampled by incompetence, eitherfrom the misguided direction, technical miscalculations, or all aroundaward-pandering mentality this surprisingly insignificant foreign filmoffers.
May 24th, 2007
'Italianetz' (THE Italian) is a strong Russian film from the pen ofAndrei Romanov under the direction of young artist Andrei Kravchuk -the kind of film that enlightens us about problems in Russia but alsoprovides one of the more tender stories about a child's resilience onfilm.
Apparently in modern Russia there are orphanages for abandoned childrenwhich serve as repositories for adoption by needy parents throughoutthe world, adoptions brokered by savvy Russian sponsors who, despitethe seeming heartlessness of their vocation, are doing a service inproviding homes for these unwanted children. The orphanages depicted inTHE Italian are not of the Charles Dickens' workhouse place types, butrather are homes run by kind people who encourage and support thechildren in a loving way.
Vanya Solntsev (Kolya Spiridonov) is a six-year-old orphan who has justbeen selected for adoption by an Italian couple visiting his orphanage.At first happy about his 'good fortune', he soon encounters adistraught mother (Dariya Lesnikova) looking for her own abandoned sonand Vanya longs to return to his own birth mother. He is taught to readby a kind prostitute Irka (Olga Shuvalova) enabling him to search theorphanage files to discover the whereabouts of his birth mother. Muchagainst the advice of his fellow orphans and those rowdy boys with whomhe associates outside the orphanage, Vanya sets out to find his motherand in hot pursuit are the brokers for the adoption and the police. Hehides, encounters all manner of obstacles and misfortunes on hisjourney, but at last he discovers his birth mother and the film endswith one of the more tender concepts imaginable.
The cinematography by Aleksandr Burov is moody and captures the feelingof peril Vanya encounters. In one of the more original musical scoresfor film Aleksandr Knaifel has elected to compose themes played solelyon the high treble keys of the piano, on the xylophone and on bells:the feeling is one suggesting the small stature of the children, makingtheir views the more important ones of the story. The cast is uniformlyoutstanding with special credit going to the warmth of the performanceby young Kolya Spiridonov. Recommended for all audiences. In Russian,Italian, some English with subtitles. Grady Harp
July 8th, 2007
"The Italian" is a touching tale of a six-year-old Russian orphan whogoes in search of the mother who gave him to a foundling home when hewas just an infant.
Vanya has spent virtually his entire life growing up in a substandardorphanage run by an alcoholic director and a cold-heartedadministrator. The children there live in virtual squalor with noeffort on the part of the leaders to properly instruct or educate them.The future for most of these youngsters is a bleak one indeed, with alife of petty thievery and/or prostitution the most likely outcome forany of them not fortunate enough to catch the eye of some prospective,loving parent. Yet, as the movie begins, young Vanya's personalnightmare seems to be coming to an end as a kind Italian couple hascome to Russia with the intention of adopting Vanya and taking him backto Italy with them. However, before the proper papers can be signed,the boy, sensing he must act quickly before it is too late, sets off ona long, arduous journey to see if he can find the mother who abandonedhim as a baby.
"The Italian" is a compelling slice-of-life drama that has a great dealto say not only about the appalling conditions faced by orphans inRussia today, but about the determination of the human spirit and theneed for love that exists at the center of every human heart. DirectorAndrei Kravchuk brings a near-documentary quality to the film, as hefocuses his camera on the details of everyday life in the orphanage andthe countryside through which Vanya travels. This air of naturalismextends to the actors as well, particularly young Kolya Spiridonov,who, as Vanya, gives a performance that can only be termedextraordinary and heartbreaking. After this film and the brilliant "TheReturn," I'm convinced that Russia has some of the finest child actorsin the business. Indeed, there is nothing less than a superbperformance in the entire film.
"The Italian" is a film tuned to the realities of life in a harshenvironment, where cruel and violent deeds often share the stage withacts of random kindness. Vanya's epic adventure provides more thanample opportunity for him to experience both, but it is the magnanimityhe encounters at the hands of strangers that lingers longest in memory.
September 21st, 2007
This film is saved from being a sentimental tearjerker by theperformances of the wonderful cast. Set in a children's home innorthern Russia, just as the long winter gives way to a miserable wetspring, the story is an absorbing tale about a little boy who tries tofind the mother who abandoned him as a baby. While almost Dickensian,the home is run by kindly people doing the best with what they have,which is nothing. Mostly losers, conscious of the fact that they neverreached their full potential, or even half their full potential, theytry to cope with the collapse of order in modern Russia.
The children are mainly left to their own devices, especially the olderones who resort to petty crime and prostitution to survive. LittleVanya should be able to read, but no one seems to be teaching thechildren, they just exist.
Other than the standout performance of Lolya Spiridov, in the lead, theones who caught my eye were the home's director, who looked as if hehad been born a dissipated alcoholic, and the assertive baby brokerknown as "Madame" who would be right at home selling condos in Florida,the sweet faced red-haired Irka, who sells her body to truckers, andthe tragic mother who tries to late to find her child. She marchedaround in furs with wads of bribery cash, reminding people that shecould be very generous in return for information.
At first I could not understand why Russia would allow a film showing adark underside to be made, then I realized that it was an indictment ofthe women who "lose" their children at railway stations and otherwiseneglect to raise their children, and the practice of foreign adoptionsfor money.
Definitely a film to see.
November 25th, 2007
A sadder state of affairs would be hard to imagine: the little"Italian," so flawlessly played by Kolya Spiridonov (which, ironically,sounds not unlike "spirit enough" in English), is beaten by an older,Artful Dodger-type when it's discovered that he wants to learn to read.His reason for wanting to learn to read is even sadder: he wants tofind out who his real mother is, and where she lives (if she stilldoes). He sits perched in a window, watching and waiting for her toreturn. Rumors abound among the children of the orphanage: kids arebeing adopted so that they can be "sold for spare parts." This "realRussia" is nothing if not frigid… at first glance. Upon closerexamination, however, we find a deep and abiding warmth. The young girlwho serves as "den mother" to the younger kids comes to "the Italian"after he has been beaten and hugs him wordlessly in what just may beone of the greatest, most beautiful moments in movie history. I highlyrecommend THE Italian.