Film

The Dybbuk (1938)

Director: Michael Waszynski

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

In this Yiddish language version of Ansky's play, the immersion in the traditional culture of the Eastern European 'shtetl' (Jewish village) is complete, and even heightened by the expressionistic style of acting and filming amid fairly realistic sets and costuming. From the initial shots in the synagogue to the marvellous singing and dancing at peak moments of the plot, this supernatural tale of the tragic possession of a bride by the soul of her true loved one is as weird and wonderful as an Isaac Bashevis Singer story. The Jewish absorption in the inexplicable suffering of humanity is made almost unbearably poignant by the knowledge that not only the traditional culture of the Polish Jews, but even the lives of the makers d actors of this film, were to be utterly destroyed over the next few years by an evil beyond even the imagination of a society that could produce irrational, tragic tales as remorseless as The Dybbuk.

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