Italyanets

This film is an absolute treasure! It is not only well done, and I don't mean super effects or huge budget, but well done from a true Cinematic and directorial approach, it also has a very interesting script. Most importantly, this film has a soul; it adds humanity to our consciousness, which is rare in this "postmodern" age we live in. Acting is excellent especially if you take under consideration that most of the characters are children. Like any great film, it speaks of the personal story and goes beyond, dealing with bigger issues. Moreover, this film follows the great Russian film tradition, reminded me of Tarkovsky, even though the style is very different, and more recent film "The Return" which came out of Russia couple years ago and won international awards.

I saw "The Italian" with a friend I have known for 40 years. He has two sons, now grown up. I could only think about how lucky they are. We and the entire audience were deeply affected by this story of the effects of poverty, abandonment, the market for children, and the inexplicable drive of boys to return to their mothers, even when they have been sent away by them. The performance of the little boy who plays the central character is astonishing, absolutely remarkable. The director is a magician. The desolation of person and of place is captured in such a way that disbelief is almost total that such things can still be ongoing in this world of great wealth, albeit selectively concentrated . All of the actors, all little boys, two young girls and a few young boys in their teens--all are so engaging that we are stunned by the loss their characters and the real little boys whose story the writer and director tell suffer. This is 2007, the film was finished in 2005 and set only three years earlier. We wonder, How can this happen to little boys, and girls? And what effects follow? We see some of those effects in the older children. Then one recalls that this sort of thing is not limited to Russia but is common here in the States and all over the world a reality--the turning of an unwanted life into dross by neglect and abandonment. Every mother and father should see this film and then go to their son and tell him how much they love him, and think about little boys languishing in orphanages. One wants to do something after seeing this film, anything to relieve such boys of their horrific fate. Their tenderness for each other is stressed by the filmmakers. This is something that bears remembering. When kids aren't taken care of, they do find ways of caring for each other. They are resourceful in face of neglect, punishments, indifference, poverty. But many fall to pieces.... That now and again one little boy MAY NOT have been destroyed utterly in this way, as suggested in this film, is the source of the film's beauty. The face of the little boy here is unforgettable. The suggestion of a life having been wasted reflects and is reflected by the setting. One can only ope that the film will be widely seen.

this was one of the best movies i have seen in a long time. not only was kolya spiridov magnificent, every actor young and old were intense. the lyricism of this movie is simply magnificent. i felt the cold, the dampness, the starkness and disagreeing completely with someone else's comment on this movie, i found the score perfect. economical, to the point, letting us feel the story without suggesting it for us as Hollywood tends to do. also... directed superbly where the main character doesn't get cheap emotions out of us by making us 'cry' by crying. we suffer his plight a great deal more as he goes through the film just as is. superb, intricate, inspired. this film deserves great recognition and all the accolades a great movie should ever get. i recommend it greatly.

The Italian is a wonderful and heart warming film, a great performance by it's staring young lead actor, Koyla Spiridonov. I was reminded of a similar film I had just watched, Under the Same Moon, which also was carried by an equally strong performance by it's young actor. Movies like these have a real chance to include a huge supporting cast which can sometimes be great for the film, but other times overshadows the main character and their story. The Italian's side characters are under developed but in this case that is for the best, the young boy is such a strong character that he is all that is needed. In Under the Same Moon the opposite of that works better, where the supporting characters help the audience connect to the main characters. The ending I felt was very beautiful, went away from a typical ending, maybe a bit cheesy, but if you really get into this story then why would you want anything else for this young man.

An earlier posting compared this film with Spielberg's "AI", a robotic boy with artificial intelligence with the capacity to form emotional bonds, a sort of interesting point, as this film itself aims a bit lower than the intelligentsia level, more at gut level emotions, since its main character is a young boy in a rundown Russian orphanage who spurns the rich Italian couple who wants to adopt him in favor of going on a treacherous journey to find his mother. And to throw a few more logs on the flames of passion, the orphanage's director collects a nice sum for adoptions of poor Russian youth by wealthy foreigners, and hence sets out with her part-time lover and assistant to trail and apprehend the kid with the help of the police, whom she pays off, as he searches for his mom. It doesn't fail to be moving, but in the department of originality, it utilizes a lot of the usual devices as it goes through its well-presented drama.