Mark Donskoy – Detstvo Gorkogo AKA Childhood of Maxim Gorky (1938)

Quote:
This haunting, unforgettable film, based on Maxim Gorky’s 1913 autobiography, follows a 12-year-old’s journey in life against the tumultuous backdrop of 19th-century Russia. With vivid imagery, it recounts the touching relationships that develop when Gorky goes to live at his grandparents’ home. Most notable are the powerful portraits of lower-class people whose qualities of integrity and dignity shine through their hopeless circumstances. (Rottentomatoes)

This film is more than an autobiographical look at one person’s life. It is a peek through the windows of a time long since passed, a history lesson and above all a lesson in life, love and friendship. This is probably the most definitive coming of age drama I have seen. (…) It is, without doubt, pure cinematic poetry. A piece of film history which everyone would do well to try and see –it will not disappoint.(…) (Ollie @ imdb)

The late 19th century. The city of Nizhny Novgorod. Wharves, the Volga accent, songs and people – good and bad, wretched and cruel. That was the atmosphere in which Alyosha Peshkov, the future great Russian writer Maxim Gorky, spent his childhood.

His life in the Kashirin family was not easy: his uncles’ constant squabbling and fights for inheritance, beatings for a slightest fault. Only one person, his grandmother Akulina Ivanovna, pities the boy. After his grandfather got absolutely ruined, Alyosha had to earn his living himself. And he goes “into the world”…

The role of Alyosha Peshkov was the first and only film work of Alexei Lyarsky, who was killed near Leningrad in 1943. (amazon.uk)

Donskoy’s film is one of the noblest works produced in the USSR before the war… (critic Jay Leyda).

1.38GB | 1h 39m | 716×574 | mkv
https://nitro.download/view/C0A568EB03108A2/My.Childhood.1938.DVDRIP.x264.AC3.24fps.mkv

Language(s):Russian
Subtitles:English