Kindergarten

Duration: 143 mi

Year Published: 1983

Creator: International Film Exchange

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: This first film by Siberian poet Yevtushenko is an autobiographical work about his evacuation as a boy of nine from wartime Moscow to Siberia. The story centers on the Dickensian adventures of a young boy, Zhenya, who is evacuated by train along with other Muscovites fleeing the German invasion of 1941. En route to his grandmother's home in Siberia, the child encounters thieves, speculators, and black marketeers and experiences love, death, and friendship. Yevtushenko's film pays homage to the Italian neo-realists and the surrealism of Cocteau. The director used nonprofessionals to tell his story including his own relatives. Yevtushenko himself appears in a small role as an eccentric chess player. (Does not circulate)