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ICM Reads: Outwitting History
Our celebration of yiddishkeit continues with
Tevye
A FILM & DISCUSSION
with refreshments
Sunday, November 15, 4 pm
AWARDS for Tevye
First Non-English Language Film to have been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. (1991)
SELECTED SCREENINGS
Cape Town/ Johannesburg Yiddish Film Festival (2008)
HOLLYWOOD ON THE HUDSON: FILMMAKING IN NEW YORK, 1920-1939
The Museum of Modern Art; New York, NY (2008)
Marwill Jewish Film Festival (2006)
New York Jewish Film Festival, New York (2005)
Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival (2002)
Montreal Jewish Film Festival (2004)
Virginia Jewish Film Festival (2003)
Toronto Jewish Film Society (2002)
RESTORED 35MM PRINT WITH COMPLETE NEW SUBTITLES
Maurice Schwartz's adaptation of the classic Sholem Aleichem play centers on Khave, Tevye the Dairyman’s daughter, who falls in love with Fedye, the son of a Ukrainian peasant. Her courtship and marriage pit Tevye’s love for his daughter against his deep-seated faith and loyalty to tradition. The clash between tradition and modernity, parental authority and love, customs and enlightenment are foreshadowed by the antisemitism of the rural community. Tevye's world is a microcosm of the larger world of Russian Jewry in the early 1900s.
This award-winning Yiddish feature film starring the renowned actor Maurice Schwartz has been preserved from the original nitrate negative with new English subtitles and has been digitally restored and augmented with extras.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
“In production just as German tanks rolled into Poland, this bittersweet Yiddish fable is no Fiddler on the Roof. Projecting the lessons of the past into an uncertain present, Schwartz's adaptation of Aleichem's story offered little comfort for audiences of the time.”
- The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2008 Screening)
“With all due respect to Zero Mostel and Topol in Fiddler on the Roof, it was Maurice Schwartz, the great Yiddish actor/director, who first showed Tevye the Dairyman in his full light as a mensch for all seasons. A rare opportunity to see Schwartz in what may have been his most magnificent role."
-Judy Stone, San Francisco Chronicle
