Ivan’s Childhood12A

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky | Soviet Union | 1962 | 1h 35m | Russian w/ English subtitles | Starring Nikolai Burlyayev, Nikolai Grinko, Valentin Zubkov

Determined to avenge his family’s death at the hands of the Nazis, 12-year-old Ivan joins a Russian partisan regiment as a spy on the eastern front. Andrei Tarkovsky’s Venice Golden Lion-winning debut feature is an eerie journey through the shadows of one boy’s war-ravaged youth and one of the most unforgettable depictions of the impact of war on children.

Classic Season: Directorial Debuts

Reviews

‘Tarkovsky pays full attention to the squalor and pity of war but never loses his sense of poetry.’
★★★★★
Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent

‘Audacious, coldly lucid postwar Russian classic…Unmissable’
★★★★★
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

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We showed Ivan’s Childhood between January 9, 2022 and January 12, 2022.

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