THE ITALIAN - Dir Andrei Kravchuk
Russia 2005 | 99mins | Russian with subtitles | cert tbc

Releasing at cinemas nationwide including the Curzon Renoir, 
Sheffield Showroom and Irish Film Institute from FRIDAY 25th JANUARY 
2008...

In his feature directorial debut, director Andrei Kravchuk addresses 
with intelligence and poignancy the urgent issue of illegal adoption 
in Russia, which has become a well-documented international crisis. 
THE ITALIAN is based on the true story of a small Russian boy 
abandoned in an orphanage who goes in search of his birth mother.

A childless, affluent couple from Italy comes to a provincial Russian 
children’s home to find a child for adoption. The orphanage is a 
harsh place, run by two rival internal factions. Alongside the 
official, adult administration, run by a corrupt headmaster (played 
by Yuri Itskov) with the help of greedy adoption broker Madam (Maria 
Kuznetsova), there is a shadow children’s gang operating out of the 
institution’s boiler room.

When the Italian couple singles out six-year-old ragamuffin Vanya 
Solntsev (Kolya Spiridonov) as their prospective choice, the other 
orphans give Vanya a new nickname: The Italian. They envy Vanya, 
imagining that he is destined for a life of ease in sunny Italy. But 
seeing that the older children must resort to stealing or 
prostitution in order to survive, plucky little Vanya has other 
plans. He decides to track down his birth mother, teaching himself to 
read in order to learn her address from his personal file locked in 
the home’s office. After stealing his records, Vanya sneaks out of 
the orphanage and boards a commuter train headed for the city, with 
the orphanage staff and police in close pursuit. Fearing that Vanya 
will make them lose a very lucrative adoption deal, the orphanage 
headmaster joins forces with Madam to find the runaway child by any 
means necessary.

"The film is distinguished by the remarkable performance of the angel-
faced Kolya Spiridonov. At once natural and ingenuous, he exhibits 
none of the precocity or tics of his American counterparts – he just 
is. It is a turn that ranks with the great child performances of 
world cinema" - James-Cameron Wilson, FILM REVIEW

Official Russian entry for Best Foreign Language Film for 2006 
Academy Awards
WINNER: Grand Prix - Best Feature at the 2005 Berlin International 
Children’s Film Festival,

SEE WHAT ACADEMIA ROSSICA THINK OF THE ITALIAN : http://www.academia-
rossica.org/ar_e_news/the_italian/

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE ITALIAN PLEASE VISIT: http:// www.sodapictures.com/cinema/72/

VENUE INFORMATION:
CURZON RENOIR http://www.curzoncinemas.com/flash/,
SHEFFIELD SHOWROOM http://www.showroom.org.uk/cinema/
screening_times.html,
IFI DUBLIN http://www.irishfilm.ie/cinema/dispfilm_07.asp?
filmID=5807&Date=1/25/2008&PageID=15