Anna ot 6 do 18

The idea of asking someone the same five questions for 12 years is in itself interesting, and the director made a good case. But, personally I think, the director talked too much and used too much documentary clips than needed to carry the idea on.

Overall, a good documentary to review the history of the last couple of decades of the 20th century and get some inspiration on the idea of nationality and identity.

On the paper, this documentary of a father/director is an incredible idea: keeping records of her daughter and in the same of the soviet dream: Technically, it's a mix of amateur shoots and an editing of news, that reminds me a bit of Oliver Stone filmmaking. The result is indeed moving as we see Anna from child to teen while her country explodes! nevertheless, for me, there is also a great failure: Mikhalkov looks like a dry, stern, cold father who uses Anna like a pet for experimentation. I don't see him really warm with her, he is heavy and not supportive with his questions and even by moments, it looks like he prefers his son or his other daughter! The ending is about a sequel years later and it would be interesting to see it now!

Now, with this movie, i reach the end of my Russian tapes and i left with mixed feelings: this soviet experiment had indeed produced a society totally different from west Europa and it was really bleak, gloom, deceptive... On the other hand, the common people were put (and left) in the middle and they show more compassion, more education than west Europeans! So i think it could be interesting to take a plunge into today movies to discover how it is now out-there ...

in my opinion this is nikita mikhalkovs masterpiece. it is a very honest documenation of life and growing up in front of a camera. in the end there will be no one left who didn't get touched by the russian attitude towards our stay on earth.

I wanted to like this film. Instead, I got less and less comfortable as it progressed. Unfortunately, the film revealed Mikhailkov's own prejudices too baldly, and made too little REAL use of the perspective of the child he was filming. I acknowledge that my perspective has probably been shaped by Russian intellectuals who view him as producing films that Westerners (particularly Americans) WANT to see and too little intellectual honesty -- but this film, his first and last documentary, as far as I know, reveals this all to clearly. So in fact the comment of one reviewer that Mikhailkov is doing something Hollywood rarely does is appropriate --only from the point of view that this is a film more worthy of Hollywood Post-Soviet-style than of an independent film vision.

Mikhailkov is a monarchist and a Russian Orthodox conservative. While he points to his aristocratic and artistic roots, he neglects any real admission that he belonged to the most privileged of Soviet elites. His father wrote the Soviet national anthem!

In fact, we get fewer and fewer of the child's answers as the film goes on, and more and more of her father's interpretations, until we understand why the 13-to-16 year old clamps up, and not purely from adolescent reticence!

Nikita Mikhalkov excels at exposing his highly personal yet very accessible view of Russian history, particularly the Soviet experience. He achieves this by revealing slices of his own life and of his family's. ANNA is the best example of his unique style, though BURNT BY THE SUN (completed a year or so after ANNA) may always remain his best-known and most acclaimed film. ANNA, in contrast to his best known work, is a real documentary. It's therefore more personal: it still stars him and one of his daughters, the screenplay and direction are his, and yes, he presents Russian history once again in retrospect. ANNA is sublime film-making at many levels, but what stands out in my mind is Mikhalkov's perfection in recounting recent earth-shaking history through a decade of Anna's young life.