Released: 1962

Dir.: Andrei Tarkovsky

First-time viewing reaction.

Many of the films I’ve seen dealing with the Second World War recently have been very personal stories. Most of them were made within the following 25-30 years after the war’s conclusion. All of them from countries that suffered staggering, incomprehensible losses, such as the nations of continental Europe, Japan, and the Soviet Union. Films such as Kanal, Fires on the Plain, Rome Open City, The Bridge, and Come and See have been horrifyingly powerful films about the personal impact of total war. Then there is Ivan’s Childhood.

Ivan (Nikolai Burlyayev) is a 12-year-old orphan, adopted by a Soviet unit stationed along the banks of the Volga, waiting for the long-awaited offensive against the invading German Armies. At 12, Ivan is a hardened veteran, having endured a Nazi concentration camp, the death of his family, working for partisans, and now doing reconnaissance work for the Soviet army. His size and agility being an obvious asset.

The Unit Commander, Gryaznov (Nikolai Grinko) wants to send Ivan to military school, and a certain degree of safety, but Ivan would rather fight on and runs away. His attempt fails, and Gryaznov relents, and Ivan is taken under the wings of Capt. Kholin (Valentin Zubkov) and Lt. Galtsev (Evgeny Zharikov).

When Ivan rests, or is alone, he dreams of his past. Simpler times of summers at the beach with his mother, playing games with his friends and the intrusion of the war that will destroy his family and his world.

While watching Ivan’s Childhood I had a strange feeling of time standing still. Not in the literal sense, but rather the feeling of the film and the situations it was portraying. The stage of the Soviet war is unclear, there is no end in sight, vague at best. Like childhood, in the mind of a 9- or 12-year-old, childhood feels like it will never end, there is no growing old. I had no conscious feeling of when the film was going to end, like the situation itself, there is no end in sight. The journey flows on like the Volga, unending.

This feeling of time standing still was quite rewarding, it was my personal reaction to what I was seeing, the ‘run-time’ was irrelevant, the mood, surrealistic atmosphere is that much more real. A very much, in the moment film experience.

The cinematography, by Vadim Yusov is staggering, haunting, beautiful, and unforgettable. Perfect black and white photography, lighting and composition is a bonus to an original story that is trying to make sense of the unthinkable. Ivan’s Childhood is a war film without the graphic violence that we associate with war films, however doom is constantly hanging above our heads. Only a short montage of newsreel footage near the end shows the real totality of war.

Please watch the trailer I’ve placed at the end of this review, if you have not seen Ivan’s Childhood, it will show you the haunting beauty of this film. At the very least this film is a visual treasure, but Ivan’s Childhood is so much more. See for yourself.

Ivan’s Childhood can be streamed on the Criterion Channel or on the YouTube.