Cast: Nicolai Burlyayev, Valentin Zubkov

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

Screenplay: Vladimir Bogomolov

Running time: 1 hr 36 mins

Genre: Russian Film/War/Drama



CRITIQUE:


Russian filmmakers will always have a place in the history of cinémathèque. Such is the case of master-auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, Alexander Sukorov’s mentor-cum-inspiration, whose debut film Ivan’s Childhood takes its place as one of the greatest war films ever made – or to further enhance its essential status, one of the greatest works of art that provides a thesis against war. This is such a compelling film without descending into sentimentality; every scene fine-tuned with power, ramming home its message, whilst never sacrificing poetry at its bleakest and ironically most beautiful form. This ranks up there along with Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows as one of the most defining movies about childhood.


The titular Ivan is a 12-year old boy who willingly employed himself into the Russian front, who also becomes a useful tool for the army as he could penetrate the enemy lines (meaning swimming beyond dangerous waters, swamps and marshlands) without being seen. But this is not how the film starts; rather it show Ivan in an idyllic scenery, a sun-dappled landscape free from the devastation of war, suggesting an unspoiled past. Then it cuts into appalling scenery of a ravaged land, Ivan skilfully treading war-torn terrain. We later learn that he is doing this to avenge the death of his family, killed by the Germans during the occupation. He survives along a group of officers, hiding in a cave-like underground headquarters, all becoming either his father or brother. But then he is incessant, transforming into one of cinema’s most powerful child performances, Nicolai Burlyayev relentless as Ivan. See the scene where he compels the head officer that he should he stay in the front; this is shocking as it is devastatingly moving – a child forced to think and act mature to bring justice to his murdered family. To him, the world is black-and-white, and in a child’s understanding, only this final act would deliver redemption. Ivan’s childhood is a lost one, an innocence robbed, and this is to say that this film is an indictment to any war of any form – that wars are really fought by children, as they grow up in trauma, self-destruction and lost innocence and youth.


Tarkovsky frames this story in a pitch-perfect cinematography, finding exquisite beauty in his most desolate visions: the sun twinkling behind the flaming war remnants, the falling, glowing debris in the swamp scenes, the fluid camera tracking of a lover’s episode in woodland. And of course, who would forget the closing scene of Ivan in a beach with his mother and a childhood friends, running along the sand. It hammers home its most painful, poignant message: this is a future that would never, ever happen.


VERDICT:

An exceptional work by Russian master Tarkovsky. Ivan’s Childhood is definitely one of the greatest anti-war art movements of the century, ranging from the works of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. This is a compelling portrait of lost childhood, both devastating and lyrical.



RATING: A+