

Ivan's Childhood
In WW2, twelve year old Soviet orphan Ivan Bondarev works for the Soviet army as a scout behind the German lines and strikes a friendship with three sympathetic Soviet officers.
TMDB
7.8/10
871 votes
IMDb
Not rated yet
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- Status
- Released
- Budget
- —
- Box office
- —
- Language
- German
- dreams
- spy
- world war ii
- swamp
- flashback
- black and white
- animals
- apple
- based on short story
- flare
- 1940s
- children in wartime
Top billed cast













Behind the camera
Director
Produced in
Soviet Union
Gallery












Videos
Release dates
United StatesUS
- Theatrical27 Jun 1963
- PhysicalBlu-ray22 Jan 2013
United KingdomGB
- TheatricalPG(re-release)20 May 2016
- PhysicalBlu-ray27 Jun 2016
- PhysicalBlu-ray29 Jan 2018
CanadaCA
- PhysicalBlu-ray22 Jan 2013
ArgentinaAR
- Theatrical166 Sept 1963
- Theatrical(Mar del Plata Film Festival)25 Nov 2014
BrazilBR
- PhysicalDVD22 Aug 2011
- PhysicalBlu-ray26 Mar 2021
- Digital / OTT14CineSesc4 Jan 2022
ChinaCN
- PremiereShanghai International Film Festival13 Jun 2015
- PremiereShanghai International Film Festival16 Jun 2016
- Digital / OTTSouhu20 Jan 2017
- Digital / OTTbilibili23 Oct 2019
CzechiaCZ
- Digital / OTT(DVD premiere)15 Nov 2010
DenmarkDK
- Theatrical1510 May 1963
FinlandFI
- TheatricalK-1618 Jan 1963
FranceFR
- TheatricalTP8 Nov 1963
- Theatricalre-release, restored version5 Jul 2017
- PhysicalBlu-ray7 Nov 2017
GermanyDE
- TheatricalEast Germany26 Apr 1963
- Theatrical16West Germany23 Oct 1963
Hong KongHK
- TheatricalI15 Oct 2004
Frequently asked questions
Ivan's Childhood was released on 9 May 1962.
Audience reviews
2- C6/10
CRCulver
9/1/2018
<i>Ivan’s Childhood</i>, released in 1962, was Soviet director's Andrei Tarkovsky first feature film. An adaptation of a short story by Vladimir Bogomolov set in World War II, its protagonist is a 12-year-old orphan (Nikolai Burlyaev) on the Eastern Front whose small size allows him to scout German positions undetected. Ivan's missions have been useful to the army, but officers Lt. Col. Gryaznov (Nikolai Grinko)…
- B10/10
badelf
7/14/2026
Summary: 10/10: A masterpiece of visual poetry and historical witness that invented the aesthetic grammar Tarkovsky would refine for the rest of his career, and an uncompromising portrait of childhood destroyed by fascist violence that has lost none of its power to devastate. Ivan's Childhood is a dreamy film about a brutal subject. The twelve-year-old Ivan, orphaned and consumed by rage, works as a scout for the …
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