This is the same guy that made Mirror?? Really????

Well, that's what it says on my sheet at least. But this and Mirror were two radically different films. Of course the main difference was one beiong narrative and the other being non-narrative, but even placing that aside, it is still amazing to watch a late film and then an early film. The story in Ivan's childhood is a touching one. It essentially shows the tale of a boy forced to grow up too quickly, as his mother and sister (father?) are killed by Nazi soldiers during WWII. Seeking revenge, he joins to help the Soviet army as a reconnisance soldier, helpful becuase of his small size.
The film is shown through an interesting narrative style where the story progresses as normal, however the young boy has dreams that reveal more and more of his past to us, one of the dreams being the one where his mother and sister are killed, thus showing us the motivation behind hos hate for Nazi's, and quest for revenge. The saddest part, however, has to be the ending in which, after the Soviets take control of Berlin, they find paper work saying that the boy had been captured and executed during their last mission, or the last one we see at least. The reason this is so striking is becuase of how anti-climactic it all was. the boy could have gone to school and become a military officer, or back to the work home and been adopted. instead, he insists on fighting and is killed, anti climactically. He would never live to see, what he would consider, the avenging of his mother and sister: the fall of the Third Reich.