The movie’s notable for its striking location photography, though the action is framed as both a play and a novel...

| Jul 14, 2022

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2008

With a tensed brow, Kolya Spiridonov plays a boy perpetually hovering between anxiety and dogged determination, and the film walks the same line, unsure about where it's going but always moving forward regardless.

| Jun 9, 2008

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 25, 2008

Vividly characterised and convincingly acted (not least by Spiridonov), it makes for a fascinating portrait of a post-Communist society beset by crime and despair.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 24, 2008

A stunningly powerful indictment of the weakest in thrall to a corrupt system.

| Jan 24, 2008

An unsentimental and vividly characterized film which successfully combines melodrama and social analysis and features an impressive central performance from Spiridonov.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 24, 2008

Even when Kravchuck lets the story drift, the boy is a solid anchor.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 24, 2008

Andrei Kravchuk's film is sensitive to the hilt and pleasingly attuned to the guileless outlook of its hero.

| Original Score: 4/6 | Jan 24, 2008

Despite channeling Dickensian melodrama, first-time director Andrei Kravchuk skilfully avoids wallowing in sentimentality.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 24, 2008

This 2005 story about a Russian boy whose mother has given him up may be derivative, but it's still engrossing, largely because of its appealing juvenile lead, Kolya Spiridonov.

| Dec 4, 2007

It's a touching film about a little boy with the determination of a champ.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 4, 2007

It is hard-hitting, but with none of the fake, over-the-top violence of Hollywood fare, and packs an emotional punch without dredging it with sugar.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 9, 2007

What really makes this potentially melodramatic story so powerful is the incredibly intense and focused presence of little Kolya Spiridonov, who makes you believe Vanya's determination and grit every step of the way.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 25, 2007

Like Vittorio De Sica, one of the great Italian neo-realists, Kravchuk populates his film with people, not paradigms; his characters are capable of good and evil, sometimes in equal measure.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | May 19, 2007

It is about love, family, and the power of kindness to overcome the cruelty in the world.

| Original Score: B | May 14, 2007

There are shocking and heartbreaking moments scattered throughout The Italian, but [director] Kravchuk approaches them with a nonjudgmental, observational style that avoids most of the pitfalls of melodrama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 11, 2007

A throwback to neo-realist filmmaking . . . snowballs in emotion until later scenes are stomach-knotting in their tension. The film largely avoids sentiment with its muted score and shadowed close-ups.

Full Review | May 9, 2007

This film is about many things, but the magic key that unlocks the treasure chest is literacy.

| Apr 30, 2007

At times, the difficulties that Vanya encounters strain credulity. The Italian doesn't bother to infuse its characters with complex motivations. They're either Bad or Good.

| Apr 27, 2007