Italian Neorealism Meets Russian Children’s Cinema: The Influence of Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves on Ilya Frez’s Ya kupil papu

Ilya Frez’s 1962 film Ya kupil papu displays the influence of Vittorio De Sica’s famous neorealist 1948 movie Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette) in both images and plot. When young Bruno is looking for his father Antonio in the streets of Rome, the camera pans in on the legs of the passers-by on the sidewalk, thereby emphasizing how small and defenseless the boy is. Likewise, in Ya kupil papu there is a scene in which only the legs of the people on the sidewalk are visible to the viewer and diminutive Dima as he searches for the papa of his imagination. Just as Rome is the background of the action in Bicycle Thieves, so Moscow is the setting for Dima’s search for a father in Ya kupil papu. Dima’s observing the pampered youngster urging his father to buy him the squirrel in the pet shop mirrors Bruno’s watching the spoiled rich boy guzzling spaghetti in the restaurant, while he and his father consume more meager fare. There is an anti-religion scene in both films. In Bicycle Thieves the people in the church where the robber hides are hypocrites and snobs, indifferent to the plight of the poor. In the Soviet film Dima is blinded by the glare of the sun reflected off the cross of the tall priest in a cassock that bewilders the young hero. The once touted, but now obscure Russian movie, Ya kupil papu is enriched by the incorporation of certain visual effects and themes from the Italian film, still considered one of the finest ever made.