The Italian

Director: Andrei Kravchuk

Cast: Kolya Spiridonov, Denis Moiseenko, Sasha Syrotkin, Andrei Yelizarov, Maria Kuznetsova

(Lenfilm, 2005) Rated: PG-13

US DVD release date: 22 May 2007 (Sony)

by Kate Williams

The Italian is an appealing cinematic fairytale tempered by the harsh and chilling realities of international adoption.

Baloney!

International adoption has given tens of thousands of kids who would have nowhere else to go a chance to live normal lives in loving homes. Without it the vast majority of these children would grow up with inadequate physical and emotional care and wind up either in mental hospitals or prisons. There’s a lot of depth and quality of parenting that just can’t be provided by an orphanage and particulary in Russia they are overflowing because domestic adoption there just isn’t picking up the slack.

In certain respects, The Italian is a piece of propaganda from the same Nationalist point of view that would much rather see children rot in orphanages than have them raised by former cold-war enemies. Before people both inside and outside Russia buy in to this stance they are well served to consider how well it serves these kids.

Comment by Steve Klare — January 22, 2008 @ 1:11 pm

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