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The Italian(Italyanets)

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Russia · 2005
Rated PG-13 · 1h 30m
Director Andrey Kravchuk
Starring Kolya Spiridonov, Mariya Kuznetsova, Nikolay Reutov, Denis Moiseenko
Genre Drama

6 year-old Vanya lives in an orphanage after being abandoned by his mother, struggling with the old and dilapidated facilities and the cruel couple in charge of the place. He turns to crime to try and finance his journey to find his birth mother, running away from new potential foster parents.

Stream The Italian

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What are critics saying?

60

Village Voice by

Lured, perhaps, by the promise of international markets, Kravchuk instead opts for routine uplift, and once the heroic journey is set in motion, the rest is ballast.

90

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

It's a carefully and almost classically balanced combination of ingredients, blending dirty-faced realism (so much more damning because it judges and condemns no one) with mystical fable of quest and homecoming.

70

Los Angeles Times by Carina Chocano

A remarkably compelling presence, Spiridonov commands attention without pandering or appealing to pity. In fact, for a 6-year-old, he is possessed of an uncanny poise.

63

New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman

There are too many familiar faces in this story, from kindhearted whores to street-urchin bullies. But even if circumstances edge toward the unlikely, Kravchuk and Spiridonov make an effective team, exploring the realities that lead to so much heartbreak for so many children.

70

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

The film flirts frequently with sentimentality, falling for it heedlessly at a couple of crucial junctures. Still, the overall style is more astringent than moist, and the hero is a little toughie of endearing tenderness.

75

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

Equal parts "Oliver Twist" and "Pinocchio," Russian director Andrei Kravchuk's fictional hearttugger exposes a troubling real-life practice in contemporary Russia: the buying and selling of abandoned children to rich foreign couples.

80

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

There is something slightly magical about the lighting, almost as if this were a fantasy land from which Vanya might actually make an escape. This sense of unreality, of magical thinking and wishing, carries the story and Vanya through a remarkable journey.

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