Ivan's childhood

Well I finally got the time to make this post after volleyball yesterday. Anyways, the film we watched yesterday was called Ivan's Childhood and was directed by none other than Tarkovsky himself. He also made the film from the previous day Mirror. Unlike Mirror though, Ivan's Childhood was much easier to follow and had an amazing story.

Basically Ivan's Childhood takes place during WWII and is about believe it or not the Childhood of a boy named Ivan. Basically Ivan becomes a spy for the Red Army after he suffers the loss of his mother and sister. Though Ivan thinks that he has found his calling, the other officers think that a young boy like him should go to school rather than being a recon soldier. Sadly Ivan thinks that his place is in the war and runs away. After being found he is then taken back to the front where he is given a mission with two of his father like officers. They say their goodbyes and Ivan goes off to do his job. You learn later that Ivan is captured and hung by the Germans and that is where the movie ends.

Now from this movie one is able to see many similarities from Mirror such as the use of fire and water together and there is actually an instance where a mirror is used and seen later in the movie. Also there are recurring dream scenes of Ivan's past which show his mother dying twice and his sister in a truck full of apples. There is also a scene at the end which kinda confused me which was Ivan playing with a bunch of kids and it ends with him running after his sister. I can't really say that this was a dream scene but I have to wonder if this is representitive of an afterlife or not. Overall I really did like this movie, Tarkovsky really has struck me as a great director and has shown me that even if you make a movie like Mirror, you still can make other great movies. I look forward to watching this again.