Product Details

• Directors: Nikita Mikhalkov
• Format: Color, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• VHS Release Date: February 16, 1999
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1567301630
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #235,318 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In the Soviet Union it was forbidden to shoot home movies, but noted director Nikita Mikhalkov (who won an Oscar® for Burnt by the Sun) ignored that prohibition and secretly filmed his daughter Anna across a span of 13 years. Every year Mikhalkov would ask the child the same five questions, and the film from their casual interviews would be secretly processed. This intimate look at a little girl's growing consciousness became the backbone of what turned out to be a startling and brilliant documentary. Mikhalkov happened to be surreptitiously filming his daughter during a span of time when the Soviet Union would change enormously, as Leonid Brezhnev died and his successors gradually began making changes that would lead to the dismantling of the USSR and the emergence of a new Russia. Footage of a young Anna smiling and answering her father's questions are deftly contrasted with newsreel footage of a Communist youth rally presided over by the aged Leonid Brezhnev. And at one point, as Anna gets older, she mentions her fear of "giving wrong answers," and the stifling atmosphere created by the Soviet state becomes apparent. As things begin to change profoundly in the late 1980s, a loosening society is shown, and Anna's own development into a thoughtful young woman becomes an analogue for changing attitudes in Russia itself. This film is a profound and powerful meditation on both family and nationhood, and it stands as a remarkable work of art. --Robert J. McNamara

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The beauty of nostalgia, January 6, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anna [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I have seen this film at the movies 7 times, and I can't help being moved each time.It treats a universal theme: the difficulty and fear of growing up and finding values to live by in your life. This film is exceptional, and by far the best of Nikita Mikhalkov: it is intimate, moving in the way it portrays family life, extremely sincere and beautifully nostalgic. Additionally, to those who have not travelled to Russia, it gives a very special glimpse of the Russian soul. You will be marked by this film for a long time: it effects your whole vision of life, in a very positive and human way.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank You, Anna, November 29, 1999

By 

Jake (Everywhere) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anna [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Anyone who is interested in or familiar with N. Mikhalkov's work as a director and actor will certainly enjoy and admire it more and more with "Anna." This brilliant display of footage from the days of the Soviet Union, its collapse, and the somewhat chaotic aftermath of society trying to define itself includes clips from all parts of life: politics, pop-culture, and private life. How he interweaves this is into the premise of the film is remarkable. For anyone interested in how Soviet/Russian life has changed over the years or stayed the same, this is an excellent educational film as well. It certainly gives a good idea of how the Russian people lived their lives, thought about their place in life and their future, and were transformed from the late seventies to the nineties. In addition, genuine "humanness" comes out in this film more than others of this genre. We see the transformation in people's lives (especially the charming Anna) on a human scale instead of through a traditional documentary format. We are brought directly into Anna's life at various times in her life and at the time of historical events in her homeland with the same five questions asked to her by her father (Mikhalkov). Towards the end of the film we see the adorable Nadia, his youngest daughter starting to grow up. You will remember her from his later Oscar winning film, "Burnt by the Sun," another remarkable film. I am excited for his latest feature film "The Barber of Siberia" to come out on video. Until then, I will watch this one over and over again, always learning something new and interesting each time.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars history through a child's eyes, May 19, 2001

By 

Chapulina R (Tovarischi Imports, USA/RUS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anna [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In 1980, director Nikita Mikhalkov ("Burnt by the Sun") began filming a clandestine home-movie of his six-year-old daughter Anna. By asking her the same five questions every year for thirteen years, and juxtaposing her answers against a collage of Soviet historical events, Mikhalkov reveals the effects of propaganda and patriotic fervor on the developing mind of a child. Little Anna's greatest fear, Baba Yaga the Witch of fairytale, is replaced by the terror of American nuclear weapons she believes aimed at her home and family. As Anna matures, she begins to doubt her Soviet indoctrination and the absolute "truths" she trusted as a child. I feel a parallel empathy with Anna: as a "babyboomer" and quintessential "product of the sixties", I experienced a similar reevaluation of "infallible" doctrines, those of Church and Society I had once accepted without question. "Anna" is a wonderful movie, not to be missed. The rare, archival historical footage is extraordinary. The young girl is utterly charming. Mikhalkov's family portrait very gently challenges Western stereotypes about the Russian people.