Tackling the issue of illegal adoption in Russia, The Italian is based on the true story of a small Russian boy abandoned in an orphanage.
Corruption is rife in the provincial Russian children’s home where a wealthy couple from Italy come to look for a child to adopt.
Two internal factions operate within the orphanage, run by the headmaster and a greedy adoption broker on one side and the children’s own gang operating from the boiler room, on the other.
Marked out by the Italian couple, six year old Vanya has his own ambitions which lead him to flee the orphanage and send him on a quest for his biological mother with the authorities, some driven by personal gain, in close pursuit.