A Boy

Twentythreeyearold Vitaly Akimov portrays his family in the shrinking Russian provincial town of Arsenyev Tenyearold Stepan his brothers stepson acts as a guide to this grim environment appropriately filmed in black and white He strums his guitar fetches water or plays kindly with his little halfbrother He also witnesses another side of life Slightly embarrassed he gingerly walks around his stepfather sleeping off the drink soaked his own urine on the kitchen floor Stepan talks cheerfully about the horrific events of his life or shares his deeper thoughts