Wounded Game (Russian: Подранки, romanized: Podranki, also released on video in the US as The Orphans)[1] is a 1977 Soviet drama film directed by Nikolai Gubenko.
[2] The film tells the story of a writer who returns to his wartime childhood city to uncover the fates of his estranged siblings, reliving a harsh past of loss, survival, and fractured family bonds amid the lingering shadows of war.
Having grown up in an orphanage after losing his parents during the war—his father died on the front lines, and his mother took her own life when Alexey was still an infant—he embarks on a quest to reconnect with his past.
Scenes include Alexey, pretending to be mute, teaming up with a group of street children and his sister Natasha to trade a stolen gramophone for a piece of bread.
The film concludes with a voiceover reading excerpts from Gennady Shpalikov's poem "By Misfortune or by Happiness," capturing the somber tone of Alexey’s story and the lasting scars of war and loss.