Vladimir Mashkov is probably Russia's best-known actor in the West. His tour de force as a smooth criminal helped Pavel Chukhrai's film, "The Thief" (Vor), get nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe in 1998, and, since then, he has played alongside Gene Hackman and Robert de Niro. But his latest directorial project, which premieres at the 26th Moscow International Film Festival on June 25, is about as far from Hollywood as you can get -- a low-budget auteur film, as he calls it, about an old Russian Jew.
The film, titled "Papa," is a cinematic take on Alexander Galich's Khrushchev-era play "Matrosskaya Tishina," which follows the relationship between a Jewish father and his son from 1929 to 1944. It's a work that's close to Mashkov's heart, as he played the father, Abraham Schwartz, to much acclaim in a production by Oleg Tabakov throughout the early '90s.
Sitting in a restaurant on Strastnoi Bulvar, Mashkov, 40, continually fiddled with a wooden cross as he spoke about the play in which he has invested so much.
"It's about a father who loves his son very much and wants him to become a great violinist," he said. It is also a play about the fate of Soviet citizens between 1929 and 1944. "It's a story of love, betrayal and farewells, [and] a life that is sacrificed."
"Matrosskaya Tishina" had initially been set to star the young Tabakov, but was removed from the stage before its premiere because the Soviet authorities did not approve of a Jew being made the hero of a play. Galich, also a talented poet, never saw his work performed. He was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974, and died three years later.
Mashkov was still in acting school when cast by Tabakov as Abraham Schwartz, a character who reaches the age of 70 by the time the curtain falls. One decade later, Mashkov has taken on the role again, this time on the big screen.
"I will be happy if viewers relate to it with love," Mashkov said about the new film. "I lost my parents very early, and that loss has made me try to remember them. This is a memorial for our loved ones ... it's a film for fathers."
Speaking English fluently, although with an accent, Mashkov commiserated about England's loss to France in the European Championships before slipping into Russian and visibly relaxing.
This is Mashkov's first time behind the camera since his partial move to Hollywood three years ago, although he says that he "lives out of a suitcase," traveling back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean for film and theater projects. His 1997 directorial debut, "Sympathy Seeker" (Sirota Kazanskaya), was a much smaller project.
"In America, I was like a spy, seeing how professionals work," Mashkov said, although he mentioned more Russian names than American ones when describing influential directors under whom he has acted: Chukhrai, director of "The Thief," Pavel Lungin, maker of "Tycoon" (Oligarkh), and Sergei Bodrov, the man behind "The Quickie."
The $3.4 million budget may be small fry compared to Hollywood blockbusters, but it is still a healthy sum in Russian terms, and, with support from the Culture and Press Ministry and a few rich friends, Mashkov is optimistic about the future of the country's cinema.
The fact that the film is premiering at the Moscow International Film Festival is in itself fitting. Part of the action is set in Moscow in 1939, and Mashkov paid considerable attention to period detail -- white horses patrolling the Dynamo soccer stadium, a Kievskaya metro station touched up for accuracy.
The city has also had an influence on his imagination overall. "Moscow really loves to be filmed for the cinema," he said.
Mashkov won the Moscow film festival's best actor award for his role in "The Quickie" two years ago, but his first festival experience came decades before, when he was 12 years old and visiting the capital from his home in Novokuznetsk. Looking back, the excitement he felt was as much a part of taking his first trip to Moscow as of the festival itself.
"I remember my first time at the festival -- the bright colors I had never seen before, and the smells," Mashkov said, warming to the memory.
Together with his mother, who had come to town to attend a puppet-theater event, he went to see his first festival film, an Italian melodrama whose name he no longer remembers. Demand for all cinema, let alone foreign, was tremendous, and the lines were so long that it was almost impossible to get a ticket.
Inside the packed theater, "they were practically hanging off the chandeliers," Mashkov recalled. "I didn't understand much, but I knew that it was the greatest moment of my life."
Mashkov made sure to bring his appreciation of smell and sound to "Papa," as well. Tracking the relationship between Abraham Schwartz and his son from 1929 to 1944, the film is split into three sections, the first set in a small Ukrainian village in 1929, the second on May Day in Moscow in 1939, and the third in the Jewish ghettos of occupied Russia during World War II.
Every frame was scrupulously checked and colored after filming to create a unified atmosphere for each of the sections.
The Ukrainian village of 1929 has a light, "almost transparent" feeling, while Moscow is tinted not according to today's modern shades, but with the "thicker and fuller" colors of the pre-war period. Finally, the scenes set in the Jewish ghetto are given a tougher appearance, which Mashkov described as "the color of sweat, with not a drop of makeup on the actors."
The central themes of "Papa" -- parental love, parental loyalty -- have always been tied to Mashkov's theatrical world. Mashkov's parents ran a puppet theater in Novokuznetsk, his mother the director and his father the puppeteer. The actor remembers his father holding a heavy metal iron above his head every morning to build up strength for the long shows.
The child often traveled with his parents on tours across Siberia. His father, "a strong, handsome man," would be known by every child in town, and lines at local shops would clear aside to let him "buy a hundred grams of sausage and walk out again." Mashkov was only 5 years old when he took part in his first show -- Dante's "The Divine Comedy," a somewhat unusual choice for a child his age. It was definitely a play for adults, but Mashkov proved a ready stagehand, moving the scenery for his parents.
Both Mashkov's parents died in their 40s, before he ever made it onto the stage as Abraham Schwartz. The actor has often talked about writing a book on the history of the Russian puppet theater in their memory. If "Papa" is successful, it might even make a good film.
The film, titled "Papa," is a cinematic take on Alexander Galich's Khrushchev-era play "Matrosskaya Tishina," which follows the relationship between a Jewish father and his son from 1929 to 1944. It's a work that's close to Mashkov's heart, as he played the father, Abraham Schwartz, to much acclaim in a production by Oleg Tabakov throughout the early '90s.
Sitting in a restaurant on Strastnoi Bulvar, Mashkov, 40, continually fiddled with a wooden cross as he spoke about the play in which he has invested so much.
"It's about a father who loves his son very much and wants him to become a great violinist," he said. It is also a play about the fate of Soviet citizens between 1929 and 1944. "It's a story of love, betrayal and farewells, [and] a life that is sacrificed."
"Matrosskaya Tishina" had initially been set to star the young Tabakov, but was removed from the stage before its premiere because the Soviet authorities did not approve of a Jew being made the hero of a play. Galich, also a talented poet, never saw his work performed. He was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974, and died three years later.
Mashkov was still in acting school when cast by Tabakov as Abraham Schwartz, a character who reaches the age of 70 by the time the curtain falls. One decade later, Mashkov has taken on the role again, this time on the big screen.
"I will be happy if viewers relate to it with love," Mashkov said about the new film. "I lost my parents very early, and that loss has made me try to remember them. This is a memorial for our loved ones ... it's a film for fathers."
Speaking English fluently, although with an accent, Mashkov commiserated about England's loss to France in the European Championships before slipping into Russian and visibly relaxing.
 Moscow International Film Festival Vladimir Mashkov's directs and stars in "Papa," which premieres June 25 at the Moscow Film Festival. |  |
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"In America, I was like a spy, seeing how professionals work," Mashkov said, although he mentioned more Russian names than American ones when describing influential directors under whom he has acted: Chukhrai, director of "The Thief," Pavel Lungin, maker of "Tycoon" (Oligarkh), and Sergei Bodrov, the man behind "The Quickie."
The $3.4 million budget may be small fry compared to Hollywood blockbusters, but it is still a healthy sum in Russian terms, and, with support from the Culture and Press Ministry and a few rich friends, Mashkov is optimistic about the future of the country's cinema.
The fact that the film is premiering at the Moscow International Film Festival is in itself fitting. Part of the action is set in Moscow in 1939, and Mashkov paid considerable attention to period detail -- white horses patrolling the Dynamo soccer stadium, a Kievskaya metro station touched up for accuracy.
The city has also had an influence on his imagination overall. "Moscow really loves to be filmed for the cinema," he said.
Mashkov won the Moscow film festival's best actor award for his role in "The Quickie" two years ago, but his first festival experience came decades before, when he was 12 years old and visiting the capital from his home in Novokuznetsk. Looking back, the excitement he felt was as much a part of taking his first trip to Moscow as of the festival itself.
"I remember my first time at the festival -- the bright colors I had never seen before, and the smells," Mashkov said, warming to the memory.
Together with his mother, who had come to town to attend a puppet-theater event, he went to see his first festival film, an Italian melodrama whose name he no longer remembers. Demand for all cinema, let alone foreign, was tremendous, and the lines were so long that it was almost impossible to get a ticket.
Inside the packed theater, "they were practically hanging off the chandeliers," Mashkov recalled. "I didn't understand much, but I knew that it was the greatest moment of my life."
Mashkov made sure to bring his appreciation of smell and sound to "Papa," as well. Tracking the relationship between Abraham Schwartz and his son from 1929 to 1944, the film is split into three sections, the first set in a small Ukrainian village in 1929, the second on May Day in Moscow in 1939, and the third in the Jewish ghettos of occupied Russia during World War II.
Every frame was scrupulously checked and colored after filming to create a unified atmosphere for each of the sections.
The Ukrainian village of 1929 has a light, "almost transparent" feeling, while Moscow is tinted not according to today's modern shades, but with the "thicker and fuller" colors of the pre-war period. Finally, the scenes set in the Jewish ghetto are given a tougher appearance, which Mashkov described as "the color of sweat, with not a drop of makeup on the actors."
The central themes of "Papa" -- parental love, parental loyalty -- have always been tied to Mashkov's theatrical world. Mashkov's parents ran a puppet theater in Novokuznetsk, his mother the director and his father the puppeteer. The actor remembers his father holding a heavy metal iron above his head every morning to build up strength for the long shows.
The child often traveled with his parents on tours across Siberia. His father, "a strong, handsome man," would be known by every child in town, and lines at local shops would clear aside to let him "buy a hundred grams of sausage and walk out again." Mashkov was only 5 years old when he took part in his first show -- Dante's "The Divine Comedy," a somewhat unusual choice for a child his age. It was definitely a play for adults, but Mashkov proved a ready stagehand, moving the scenery for his parents.
Both Mashkov's parents died in their 40s, before he ever made it onto the stage as Abraham Schwartz. The actor has often talked about writing a book on the history of the Russian puppet theater in their memory. If "Papa" is successful, it might even make a good film.