Call it the curse of the Russian character, but maybe it’s a blessing: Triumph and tragedy never seem to be further apart than just a few seconds.
At least that’s the common theme of “Papa” and “Roots,” two otherwise dramatically different Russian films screening three times apiece in the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
Both films are co-presented by the ’79ers program of the Jewish Family and Children’s Services and Kritzer/Ross Émigré Program of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
A stunningly photographed saga of a cosmopolitan musician’s love-hate relationship with his small-town father, “Papa” powerfully transcends its stage-play origins — and familiar family dynamics—to provide shrewd and daring insights into Soviet history in the first half of the 20th century.
In contrast, “Roots” is set in the capitalist present, and lays out its rambunctious tale of a scam come unstrung in a palette of vivid yellows, reds and greens. Diverting but unmemorable, “Roots” is nonetheless more likely to make expatriates homesick for the Old Country.
“Papa” encompasses three separate time periods in depicting a Jewish boy’s evolving attitude toward his father — quiet rebelliousness followed by rejection and, ultimately, embrace.
The opening section, set in the Ukrainian village of Tulchin in 1929, plays like a perfectly etched short film. David, a talented young violinist, is held to a rigorous, almost sadistic, practice schedule by his father. Papa is a small-time wheeler-dealer but smart enough to realize that any skill that can propel a Jewish kid out of this nowhere place must be honed to a sharp point.
David shares that goal, as evidenced by his fascination with trains and postcards of European cities. His vague dreams of the mysterious charms of big-city life are matched only by his concrete impatience to escape his boorish, alcoholic father.
Jump to 1939, and after three years in Moscow the handsome David is basking in the acclaim of a successful debut recital. All the stars are aligning for fame, love and fortune. But in Stalin’s USSR, the ladder of success may be yanked not because of who you are or even who you know, but who your father is.
So when Papa (the gifted Vladimir Mashkov, who also directed) shows up unkempt and unannounced, bursting in on a conservatory party with a bag of prunes, David views his old man’s arrival as a stupid and naïve form of sabotage.
The final portion of the film is set in the chaos of World War II, and features some truly remarkable shots. David’s yearning, resentment and anger in the first two acts gives way to the realization that he is connected to his father on a deep, deep level.
The Nazi destruction of Ukrainian Jewry is the pivotal event. The things that drove David — ambition, the friendship of comrades, the goal of building a new society — don’t seem quite as important all of a sudden.
“Papa” is epic in its themes, historical reach, sets, costumes and crowd scenes. In every way, that is, except length, for it clocks in at a mere 95 minutes.
Where “Papa” has a classic feel to match the eras in which it is set, “Roots” is a more loosely structured film that constantly threatens to veer into outright anarchy.
When well-off American and Canadian Jews make a pilgrimage to their ancestral Russian town, they hire a likable hustler named Edik to track down the kin they’ve never met.
Actually, that would be drudgework, and Edik is nothing if not creative. So he pays local Jews to pretend, for a week, that they are somebody’s distant relatives.
This set-up provides ample opportunity to illustrate the corrupting effect of American dollars on newly savvy Russian capitalists. It also seems inevitable that Edik won’t be able to keep all his lies hidden and all his balls up in the air.
Fifteen years ago, in his remarkable “Taxi Blues,” director Pavel Lounguin imagined a Moscow jazz musician grappling with the unwelcome revelation that he’s Jewish. Lounguin has clearly worked through most of his own angst and confusion, for the black comedy of the earlier film has given way to the screwball comedy of “Roots.”
This movie serves as a warm-hearted rejoinder to those who lament that you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family. “Roots” would like us to accept that being related is purely relative and, in fact, you can choose your family.
I did say this was fiction, didn’t I?
“Papa” screens at 9:15 p.m. Monday, July 24 at the Castro Theatre in S.F., 9:30 p.m. Sunday, July 30 at the Century Cinema 16 in Mountain View and 9:15 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 1 at the Roda Theatre in Berkeley.
“Roots” screens at noon Tuesday, July 25 at the Castro Theatre in S.F., 11:30 a.m. Sunday, July 30 at the Century Cinema 16 in Mountain View and 2 p.m. Monday, July 31 at the Roda Theatre in Berkeley.