Italianetz (2005)

Director:

Andrei Kravchuk

Writer:

Andrei Romanov (writer)

Release Date:

22 September 2005 (Russia)

Genre:

Drama | Family

Tagline:

In Russia, Every Orphan Longs for Adoption. Vanya Has Other Plans...To Find His Mother At All Costs

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Russian | Italian | Orphanage | Orphan | Adoption

Awards:

6 wins

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
Rudolf Kuld	...	Guard
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vladimir Shipov	...	Bloke
Andrei Yelizarov	...	Timokha

Also Known As:

Итальянец (Russia)
The Italian (USA) (new title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some violence, sexual content, language and thematic issues.

Runtime:

90 min | Canada:99 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Russia

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Sweden:7 | Australia:M | Singapore:PG | Brazil:12 | Japan:PG-12 | USA:PG-13

Company:

Lenfilm Studio

Trivia:

Russia's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 78th Annual Academy Awards (2006)

Dickensian in the best sense of the word

Despite a title that hints at a modern-day stab at Italian neo-realism in the vein of The Bicycle Thieves, as others have noted, Andrei Kravchuk's The Italian plays very much like a Charles Dickens story - had Dickens been Russian and alive in the 21st century. Vanya Soltnsev (Kolya Spiridonov) is the modern-day Oliver Twist in a particularly bleak Russian orphanage run by the corrupt Madam and a weak-willed headmaster, both turning a profit on arranging adoptions for foreign couples. But when a mother who abandoned her child appears at the orphanage in a vain attempt to be reunited, he becomes obsessed with the possibility that his own mother might still want him and determines to find her in the big city - but Madam has already sold him to an Italian couple and sets off in hot pursuit...

It's a sincere film, but it doesn't quite hit home as hard as it wants to. The first half of the film paints in the details of the everyday corruption in the orphanage, where the corrupt adult administration is mirrored by an equally corrupt gang of children, but despite the grey, colourless stones it doesn't anger or outrage as much as it could. Possibly modern audiences have become slightly desensitised to this kind of material from decades of news exposes, but the first half of the film does tend to drag a little before Vanya makes his escape. It's in this section that the film really comes to life, gradually accumulating color and vitality denied the early scenes as Vanya is both helped and hindered by those he meets on his way to the big city, and it's here that the film finally starts to engage the emotions and gets you rooting for him. The ending might be a little unlikely, but Dickens certainly would have approved…