Child's play: Nadia and romantic childhood in Nikita Mikhalkov's Burnt by the Sun

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article critically examines the integral function of Nadia in Utomlennye solntsem/Burnt by the Sun (Mikhalkov, 1994) as a necessary component of the ideological and commercial aims of the film. Critiques of the film often focus on the love triangle, but Nadia is a vital character who serves to shift the audience favour away from Mitia towards Kotov. Through a discussion of Aristotle's and Rousseau's conceptions of the child, I argue that Nadia embodies a western image of childhood contradictory to the representation of childhood in Soviet propaganda of the time. This directorial decision reveals not only Mikhalkov's political agenda, but the international ambitions for the film as a commercial product.