A young boy witnesses his parents' murder. Later, as he grows up, he befriends a bear in the wilderness and the chief of a local Indian tribe, and he stays with the Indians, but makes an enemy of the chief's son. As he enters adulthood he sets out to find the men responsible for his parents' deaths.
Based on A. Galych's play "Matrosskaya Tishina", "Papa" tells a story of a Jewish father who dreamed of seeing his son perform on a stage in front of huge audiences, he dreamed of seeing him as the greatest violinist of his time. To achieve the goal he taught his son Dodik how to play the violin from the yearly age. When Dodik grew up he left the small town he and his father lived in to study in the Moscow Conservatory leaving his past behind. But one day he has to choose either to loose his father or everything he has achieved.
Polosa vezeniya (literally) 'Streak of Luck' is the fifth film in a Mosfilm "youth" anthology series and comprises three short stories. The first story, 'Vizit' (The Visit) directed by film maker turned politician Yevgeni Gerasimov tells the story of a rural boy visiting his former village girlfriend, now living in Moscow. Next comes a short film by Aleksandr Majorov called 'Zolotye rybki' (Goldfishes) which is based on a story of a magical goldfish brought from a provincial pet store by the late Russian historian and science-fiction and fantasy writer Kir Bulychyov. The final segment and the title of the film, 'Polosa vezeniya' (Streak of Luck) tells the story of a member of staff at a research institute who is offered the job of the department head, but has second thoughts when he discovers the previous boss was unfairly dismissed.
