6 April marks the debut of the film, “Ivan’s Childhood” sometimes also known as “My Name is Ivan”. It was the premiere film of Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky. The film relates the story of a 12 year old scout for the Soviet Army during World War II and is taken from a short story by Vladimir Bogomolov.
It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1962 and the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1962. The film was also selected as the Soviet entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 36th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. Numerous filmmakers have cited the motion picture as an influence on their work. Jean-Paul Sartre said it was one of the most beautiful films he had ever seen.
In the USSR, it sold over 16 million tickets.
