This is the second installment of a three-part series of autobiographical films about the director's life. The first, which won various awards for its maker, was entitled Zamri Oumi Voskresni and was later retitled Zari, Umri, Vokresni ("Freeze, Die, Come to Life!").
At the end of that film, set at the conclusion of World War II, the young Valerka was striving hard to overcome the inertia of just getting by, along with his sometime friend Galiya. In this one, he is adjusting to Galiya's death and is back in school and is living with his mother, a prostitute. After a girl at the school is found to have been gang-raped, the headmaster chooses Valerka to be one of the scapegoats, though he had nothing to do with the deed. The punishment seems mild enough, he was simply expelled from school. However, after quarrelling with his mother about the incident, he takes to the road, and discovers a society so bleak, degraded and hopeless that it is a wonder he remained alive. The film was entered into the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize.

最讓1990坎城影展的觀眾與影評驚訝的，不是眾多大師的新作，當年大家議論紛紛的，就是獲得金攝影機獎的《停！死亡！再復活！》。金攝影機獎一直是坎城影展最受好評的獎項，向來頒給青年導演的首部作品，得過這個獎的導演有Jim Jarmusch、Mira Nair、Jaco Van Dormael、Jafar Panahi、Naomi Kawase、Corneliu Porumboiu…，全都是日後炙手可熱的大導演。只是Vitali Kanevsky得獎時已是55歲，應該是歷來得此獎項年紀最高的一位。起因還是美國導演亞倫派克（Alan Parker）拜訪蘇俄時，Kanevsky硬是要求他看片。亞倫派克抽不出時間，帶了卡帶回美國，看完帶子時被片中不經修飾的原生力量震撼不已，深受感動之餘，將帶子託付給坎城影展的主席 Gilles Jacob。原本以為對方只是客氣地收下，哪知影片不但入選，還得到所有新導演夢寐以求的榮譽。
你或許會說Kanevsky真是幸運？生於蘇俄布良斯克鄉下的他，1960年進入莫斯科VGIK電影學校，畢業前夕被控涉嫌一件強暴案，因此坐了8年的冤獄。被釋放後再進VGIK，終於在1977年完成學業。然後再坐了13年的冷板凳才機會完成首部影片。《停！死亡！再復活！》讓當年所有坎城的觀眾屏氣凝神到不知所措，影評甚至斷言又一位俄國大師的誕生。外國資金立刻擁入援救這位還是初生之犢的天才，他繼續拍了續集《獨立生活》，再度獲得1992年坎城影展的評審團大獎。
《二十世紀的小孩》可以說是Kanevsky自傳影片的第三部曲，只是，這次是一部貨真價實的紀錄片，Vitali Kanevsky親自現身影片之中，飾演Galiya的Dinara Drukarova已成為充滿希望的俄國新星；飾演Valerka的Pavel Nazarov則成為階下囚。事隔多年，在街頭討生活的他，一貧如洗。Kanevsky訪問他的同伴關於他們所犯下的不法行徑，受訪者坦承告知，不是拍攝中的電影，也非排練過後的演出，偷竊、殺人，暴力與殘酷在街頭上真實上演。原本應是純真的臉龐，確有著風塵僕僕、歷經滄桑的老練神情。蘇聯解體下的社會，在這部彩色的影片下，卻有著比黑白的《停！死亡！再復活！》更令人唏噓的無奈。Kanevsky一直宣稱他要拍真實，但是，他真的拍現實時，我們卻更希望這是部科幻片。在這部影片之後，Kanevsky又拍了一部紀錄片，然後從此消失在影壇。他在等待拍下一部片？還是直指電影核心的真實，令人太過沉重？

Stuck in a mining town near Vladivostok in 1947 amongst Soviet exiles and Japanese POWs (Japanese prisoners remained in Siberia for years after the war had ended), the kids have to come up with something to keep them busy. Two friends, Valerka and Galia, play some peculiar, very dangerous games of their own amid the man-made wasteland of Suchan.