Cannes

Vanechka

 (Russia)

By LESLIE FELPERIN

A Global Action Group, in association with the Mikhail Kalatzov Fund, present a Telekanala Russiya production. (International sales: Swipe Films, London.) Produced by Nadezhda Kopitina. Executive producers, Sergei Shymakov, Sergei Fiks.
Directed by Yelena Nikolayeva. Screenplay, Yulia Topol, based on a story by Eduard Topol.
 
With: Yelena Velikanova, Andrei Panin, Maksim Galkin, Yevdokiya Germanova.

 

Yelena Nikolayeva's late '90s-set Russian dramedy "Vanechka" is willing to see the lighter side of woefully underfunded state orphanages, a corrupt police force and endemic organized crime violence while its romantic leads find love amid a collapsing national economy. Despite all that, pic reps an essentially fluffy tale of a teenage girl forced to take care of a cute orphaned baby. Pic did respectable biz domestically after bowing in November 2007, but will need a lot of foster care to work in non-Slavic territories.

Newly arrived in Moscow hoping to get into acting school, 17-year-old Nadezhda (Yelena Velikanova) agrees to mind 9-month-old boy Vanechka (Maksim Galkin) while his parents move house. They're suddenly killed in a collision with some gangsters, who later plot with a crooked cop to nab the late parents' flat where Nadezhda's staying. Vanechka is taken into an orphanage, but Nadezhda can only save him from adoption if she marries oligarch Pavel (Andrei Panin). Pic's 1998 setting only seems justified to provide superfluous plot distractions like a miners' strike unfolding in the background. Tech credits are typical for Russian fare.

Camera (color), Archil Akhvlediani; editor, Yuri Vlasov; music, Yuri Loteyenko; art director, Vladimir Trapeznikov; costume designer, Tatiana Vdovina. Reviewed at the Cannes Film Festival (market), May 17, 2008. Running time: 103 MIN.