Ivan's Childhood (1962)
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, Eduard Abalov

Film Review

The horrors and injustices of war are never more keenly felt than when seen from the vantage point of a child.  In his astonishing debut feature Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Tarkovsky presents a hauntingly poetic child's eye view of war that transcends the stark brutality of its subject and instils in anyone who watches it an overwhelming sense of anguish.  It is a war film like no other, the harrowingly realistic depiction of one boy's wartime exploits intermittently invaded by vividly lyrical dream sequences that recall his happier years before the war.  The Ivan we see in the sunny dream-interludes, a carefree child basking in a world of paradisiacal beauty, is virtually unrecognisable as the hardened avenging angel we see scuttling across the battle-scarred landscape of WWII.  Vanquished is the innocence of childhood, and in its place is a searing lust for revenge.  When he is caught in a Nazi air raid, Ivan flatly remarks that he is not afraid - a coldly mechanical admission that chills the blood.  War hasn't only robbed Ivan of his childhood, it has also taken away his soul.

Made at a time when there was a mood in the Soviet Union to reflect on the enormous human cost of the Second World War Ivan's Childhood proved to be enormously successful.  It garnered huge critical acclaim on both sides of the Iron Curtain and established Tarkovsky as one of the most promising film directors of his generation.  The film also received the Gold Lion award at the 1962 Venice Film Festival - an auspicious start to a filmmaking career of almost unrivalled brilliance.  Even Ingmar Bergman found the film to be a revelatory experience, one that would have a profound and lasting impact on his own creative output.  Jean-Paul Sartre described it as one of the most beautiful films he had ever seen.

Although it is overshadowed to some extent by the grander, more experimental films that Tarkovsky would go on to make, Ivan's Childhood is unquestionably a work of exceptional power and beauty.  The compelling narrative, taken from a short story written by Vladimir Bogomolov in 1957, provides Tarkovsky with a sturdy framework which allows him to freely develop his radical and very distinctive aesthetic, one which blurs the boundary been reality and imagination and employs strong visual images to expose the inner traumas of the protagonists.   Tarkovsky was particularly fortunate to have Vadim Yusov as his cinematographer, as it is Yusov's keen visual sense and penchant for experimentation that contributes just as much to the film as its firebrand director.   Nikolai Burlyayev also deserves a special mention, as his portrayal of the central protagonist Ivan is, perhaps more than anything, what gives the film such a powerful emotional resonance.  A child actor of formidable skill and presence, Burlyayev would also distinguish himself as the bell maker in Tarkovsky's next film, Andrei Rublev (1966).

Anyone familiar with Tarkovsky's later films will be struck by the pace and visual dynamism of this first film, which employs camera movement and lighting effects far more freely than is typical of this director.  The transitions that catapult us from Ivan's dreams to his living reality are abrupt to the point of heart-stoppingly frenetic, and yet there is also a striking synergy between the poetry of Ivan's grim wartime experiences and his Elysian flights of fancy.  By intertwining images of the boy's happy past and nightmarish present, both adorned with some eerie symbolism, Tarkovsky manages to weave a terse anti-war poem of devastating poignancy.  As mesmerising as the film is, its elegant martyrdom of a child has about it the horrifying, unforgiveable brutality of a rape.

Film Synopsis

During World War II, the Soviet army is fighting to repel the advancing German army on the Eastern Front. 12-year-old orphan Ivan goes on reconnaissance missions for the Soviets, taking advantage of his diminutive size to avoid being spotted and captured by the enemy.  After one such mission he runs into a party of Russian soldiers and is taken to Lieutenant Galtsev for interrogation.  The young officer is surprised to discover that Ivan is an experienced and valuable scout and begins to develop an attachment towards him.  After the death of his parents and sister, Ivan joined a group of partisans but was arrested and sent to a boarding school.  The boy escaped and found his way into an army unit commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Gryaznov.  Determined to avenge the death of his family, Ivan persuaded Gryaznov to use him as a reconnaissance scout.  After the boy's latest mission, Gryaznov is determined to send him to a military school.  Ivan has other ideas...