In some ways a standard war film, heralding the bravery of Russian soldiers on the German front line in World War II, Ivan’s Childhood also clearly stands as a work by Andrei Tarkovksy. Although his debut feature, the movie has a mysticism and poeticism that would define later, more monumental efforts like Stalker, Solaris, Mirror, and Nostalghia. Ivan’s Childhood opens with an Edenic dream sequence before the title character (Nikolay Burlyaev) wakes up in the mud and muck of a flooded forest. Orphaned and angry, the boy sneaks about as a scout for the Russian military, passing though a nightmarish landscape of rotting trees and shattered buildings, all of which Tarkovsky captures with striking compositions. (There’s a birch grove here that seems conjured from a fairy tale.) Burlyaev, who would go on to have a crucial role in Tarkovsky’s next film, Andrei Rublev, balances a surprisingly adult authority with a childish vulnerability. When he calmly states, during a mortar attack, “I’m not afraid,” you believe him. But only because he’s been so damaged.
(4/24/2025)
