La balade d'Ivan

The film skilfully steers us from sympathy for Ivan to realisation that he is a nasty piece of work. It does this while holding one's interest throughout during vignettes in Paris and the Bois de Vincennes.

We meet Ivan on the streets of the metropolis telling his story while panhandling for a euro or two. He is beautiful and his situation as a homeless foreigner shunned and abused by the locals evokes feelings of commiseration. As he gradually withdraws from the city to the woods and leads a near solitary existence we learn more and realise that he is not the angel-faced unfortunate we had imagined. He was a tearaway little yob who used to have fun gobbing on the heads of passers-by from a rooftop and who left school at fourteen to drink vodka with his mates.

His true self emerges in the woods and this culminates in a shocking act of violence. His tears and regrets are not for his victim(s) but for himself - he still steals the money.

Winter's approaching and he's on the move again in the rain. He tells some more about himself concluding with his real age. Are we meant to be shocked or sorry? I wasn't. He's a horrid little tyke.

The skill of the filmmakers was to hold the viewer through the 75 minutes of the screenplay.

Aram Arakelyan's age seems to be nowhere on the web. However I'm pretty sure he's older than the character he is playing. No matter as he kept it all together and us transfixed.