Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography of the Russian Federation
"National Film Center" film studio
present
"The Little Angel" .
"The Little Angel" based on the story by Leonid Andreyev
At times Sashka wished
to give up what is called
living:
to no longer go to the grammar school,
to no longer listen to everyone there scolding him,
and to no longer experience the pain in the small of his back
and over his whole body
when his mother made him kneel in the corner all the evening.
But, since he was only thirteen years of age,
and did not know all the means by which people abandon life,
when they so wish,
he continued to go to the grammar school
and to kneel in the corner.
Give it back!
Wolf-cub!
Lollipop-roosters!
Here, take it.
Look, look!
Come on, come on! Hup-hup-hup!
Wolf-cub!
Where have you been knocking about all night, puppy?
Sashka! The Svetchnikovs have invited you to the Christmas tree.
You're lying!
Swear to God.
The housemaid came.
Smug-faced prigs!
I won't go to them.
But I say you shall go!
Auntie,
do give me one thing from the tree;
the little angel.
Impossible.
I promised it to Kolya.
Isn't it nice?...
Yeah. There's something remarkable about him.
Look! He is going to fly!
And next to the eyes of the man, who had lived his life,
sparkled the eyes of one, who was beginning his life,
and caressed the little angel.
The father and son did not look at one another:
their sick hearts grieved, wept, and rejoiced apart.
But there was something in their thoughts which fused their hearts in one,
and annihilated that bottomless abyss
which separates man from man
and makes him so lonely, unhappy, and weak.
All lonesome, on a Christmas night he cowers -
A wolf cub whining, yellow-eyed and slight.
The hoary woods are lit like lilac flowers,
And firs wear diamonds in the night.
The stars on heaven's floor are flickering;
They flicker, and they tickle angels' feet.
The disheveled cub awaits miracles,
But the wood's silent, bare and neat.
But up in their high homes, the angels all
Pace and discuss in whispered voices huffy,
Then one descends, decides to heed the call
As a grey she-wolf, big and fluffy!
And to her tender, milk-filled, trailing breast
The cub clings close, with greedy, rasping bliss.
Firs, starry heavens, and the cub at rest -
All felt that night's deep happiness.
screenwriter Zalina Bideyeva
director & art director Zalina Bideyeva
producer Sergey Zernov
lead animator Svetlana Shuhayeva
animators Yelena Petrova, Yekaterina Boykova, Aleksey Chistov, Aleksey Mironov
composer Yuriy Abdokov
sound Dmitriy Smirnov
narrator Boris Plotnikov
voice artists Raisa Konyuhova, Rashid Bilyalov, Nikolay Ilyin,
Daniil Li, Danila Bobrovskiy, Dmitriy Borisov, Nikita Belomestnykh
production coordinator Nikolay Makovskiy
script editors Mariya Pasholok, Nataliya Kuznetsova
production director Andrey Kanivchenko
The artists thank the Nonprofit Educational Institution "Myslitel", T.A. Bogdanova, O.V. Lanina,
Fyodor Hitruk, Aleksandr Petrov, Aida Zyablikova, Aleksey Bogdanov, Grigoriy Manasevich
The End 2007
Subs by Eus & Niffiwan, based on W.H. Lowe's translation, Vladimir Nabokov's 1922 poem translated by Niffiwan, 2025.12