Katya Kazbek
Parsons School of Design '11
When Mitya was two years old, he swallowed his grandmother 's sewing needle. For his family, that event marked the beginning of the end, the promise of certain death. To Mitya, the needle is a small treasure that guides him from within. As he grows, the course of his life parallels the uncertain path of his country, torn between its past and the promise of freedom as it attempts to rebuild following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mitya finds himself facing a different sort of ambiguity: Is he a boy, as everyone keeps telling him, or is he not quite a boy, as he often feels?
After suffering horrific abuse from his cousin Vovka, who has returned broken from war, Mitya embarks on a journey across the Moscow underground to find something better, a place where he belongs. The narrative of his experiences is interwoven with a retelling of a classic Russian fairytale, "Koschei the Deathless," which lends an element of fantasy to the brutal realities of Mitya 's life.
Told with deep empathy, humor, and a touch of surrealism, Little Foxes Took Up Matches depicts the life of a community in a country facing turmoil and upheaval, as seen through the eyes of a precocious and empathetic child who understands that life often presents us with more than two choices.
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