De jeugd van Ivan (Ivan's Childhood)

In Ivan’s Childhood, Tarkovsky concentrates on the experiences of twelve-year-old Ivan, whose parents were murdered by the Nazis. Fuelled by hatred, the boy joins a group of partisans fighting the Germans at the front. Tarkovsky’s first feature-length film offers an unusual – by Russian standards – view of World War II. This is no conformist Soviet war film full of heroic feats of arms; rather, it is a work of socially committed, personal testimony. Ivan is a Russian boy who at the same time is a symbol of all children who become victims of war – a theme that is now all too relevant.