The Italian

The orphan has recently become a figure with a powerful resonance in post-Soviet filmmaking. This film is set in a privatised institution run by a profit-oriented proprietor and effectively administered by a gang of juvenile inmates. Things are looking up for six-year-old Vanya, though. He is about to be adopted (or purchased might be a better way of putting it) by a benevolent Italian couple. However, Vanya is a child as dogged and resourceful as he is inconvenient when his imagination is fired by the prospect of finding his mother. Andrei Kravchuk’s film is a delight for the ears with its densely layered soundtrack conjuring up an off-centre world in which you can never feel truly at ease or at home.

Briskly helmed by feature debutant Andrei Kravchuk, pic depicts the hard-knock life in a remote Russian children's home with stark realism, evolving smoothly into a taut adventure tale as protag hits the road in search of his mum.

Variety