The Orphans Movie Review

Nikolai Goubenko made an extraordinary U.S. debut as a director with The Orphans, partly based on his own childhood experiences after World War II. The picture introduced little A. Tscherstvov, the best child actor at the San Francisco International Film Festival since six-year-old Ana Torrent appeared in 1973's Spirit of the Beehive. Young Tscherstvov grabs our attention so completely that dialogue is nearly unnecessary, though he does quite well with Goubenko's sensitive screenplay. His expressive blue eyes lend poignance to every sequence of this tale about a group of war orphans who attend school in 1945 Russia. Goubenko, too, is effective as a teacher who is unable to cope with the needs of the children in his care. Beautifully photographed, The Orphans also features strong supporting performances by Y. Boudraitis and E. Bourkov. AKA: Podranki.

1977 97m/C RU Nikolai Gubenko, Y. Boudraitis, A. Tcherstvov, A. Kaliaguine, E. Bourkov, J. Bolotova, R. Bikov, E. Evstigneev; D: Nikolai Gubenko; W: Nikolai Gubenko; C: Alexander Kniajinsky. VHS