Hulkeasexo
it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.
ChampDavSlim
The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Tyreece Hulme
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
jdpenna
Found this to be a film I would see over again. Only complaint was sub titles were incomplete so I had to guess about the dialog. The boy playing Vanya was so believable and everything he felt could be seen on his face. All of the actors were great. Would recommend this film highly. I found no political content. You would have to be looking for it to find anything like propaganda. Just a mesmerizing film. So sad were the scenes in the orphanage, although the affection between the children was so sweet. I thought Vanya's journey to find his mother was so fraught with peril it kept me worried about him. Made me wish I could understand Russian. The older children made it seem they did what they had to for survival. I liked how they helped Vanya as well as the people who helped him on his journey.
sergepesic
One of the reviewers was trying to convince us that this movie is nationalist, because it portrays orphanages and their staff in negative light. I have to strongly disagree. The bleakness of day to day life in Russia in transition, that this film vividly brings to life, can hardly be a fodder for any nationalist propaganda. Most of Hollywood movies are way more nationalist and self-deluding than anything we saw in this powerful little movie. Director Andrei Kravchuk tells this tragic, but ultimately uplifting story with just the right amount of sentiment.It ends with a slight touch of fairytale. After all, most of the time, life is a mix of tragedy and endless hope.
lastliberal
It is not likely that I will find Andrei Kravchuk's first film, A Christmas Miracle< in my search for Christmas movies to get me in the spirit; but, his second film, and Russia's entry into the Oscar race is truly heartwarming and an outstanding sophomore venture for the new director.Six-year-old Vanya (Kolya Spiridonov) is being adopted from a Russian orphanage by an Italian couple. While waiting, he comes across a mother looking for her son, who has long since been adopted. He decides to find his own mother and sets out to make this happen, even though he has already be "sold." Of course, the people who sold him are trying to find him as he journeys to find his mother. Six years old and off on a journey well beyond his years. Like so many children in the world he has to grow up too fast - most because of war or tragedy like Darfur.You will be torn by what the children at the orphanage do to survive, and you will be heartened by the strangers who help him along the way. Most of all, you will find that there are some great movies out there that do not depend on CGI or excessive violence to entertain. This is certainly one of them.
gradyharp
'Italianetz' (THE Italian) is a strong Russian film from the pen of Andrei Romanov under the direction of young artist Andrei Kravchuk - the kind of film that enlightens us about problems in Russia but also provides one of the more tender stories about a child's resilience on film.Apparently in modern Russia there are orphanages for abandoned children which serve as repositories for adoption by needy parents throughout the world, adoptions brokered by savvy Russian sponsors who, despite the seeming heartlessness of their vocation, are doing a service in providing homes for these unwanted children. The orphanages depicted in THE Italian are not of the Charles Dickens' workhouse place types, but rather are homes run by kind people who encourage and support the children in a loving way.Vanya Solntsev (Kolya Spiridonov) is a six-year-old orphan who has just been selected for adoption by an Italian couple visiting his orphanage. At first happy about his 'good fortune', he soon encounters a distraught mother (Dariya Lesnikova) looking for her own abandoned son and Vanya longs to return to his own birth mother. He is taught to read by a kind prostitute Irka (Olga Shuvalova) enabling him to search the orphanage files to discover the whereabouts of his birth mother. Much against the advice of his fellow orphans and those rowdy boys with whom he associates outside the orphanage, Vanya sets out to find his mother and in hot pursuit are the brokers for the adoption and the police. He hides, encounters all manner of obstacles and misfortunes on his journey, but at last he discovers his birth mother and the film ends with one of the more tender concepts imaginable.The cinematography by Aleksandr Burov is moody and captures the feeling of peril Vanya encounters. In one of the more original musical scores for film Aleksandr Knaifel has elected to compose themes played solely on the high treble keys of the piano, on the xylophone and on bells: the feeling is one suggesting the small stature of the children, making their views the more important ones of the story. The cast is uniformly outstanding with special credit going to the warmth of the performance by young Kolya Spiridonov. Recommended for all audiences. In Russian, Italian, some English with subtitles. Grady Harp
