
Broken Barriers(1919)
This 1919 silent is the first American film based on the same Sholem Aleichem stories as Fiddler on the Roof, but produced 50 years before the blockbuster musical. Unlike most adaptations of Aleichem’s work, Broken Barriers (Khavah) focuses not on Tevye the milkman, but on his daughter Khavah, who falls in love with the gentile boy Fedka and must navigate the reverberations from this with both her community and her family.
Movie: Broken Barriers
Top 8 Billed Cast
Khavah
Fedka
Tobias, Khavah's Father
Khavah's Mother
Parasha, Fedka's Mother
Ivan, Fedka's Father
Khavah's Sister
Fedka's Chum

Khava
HomePage
Overview
This 1919 silent is the first American film based on the same Sholem Aleichem stories as Fiddler on the Roof, but produced 50 years before the blockbuster musical. Unlike most adaptations of Aleichem’s work, Broken Barriers (Khavah) focuses not on Tevye the milkman, but on his daughter Khavah, who falls in love with the gentile boy Fedka and must navigate the reverberations from this with both her community and her family.
Release Date
1919-01-01
Average
5
Rating:
2.5 startsTagline
Genres
Languages:
No LanguageKeywords
Recommendations Movies
6.2Street Flow 2(fr)
Struggling to overcome cycles of betrayal, revenge and violence, the Traoré brothers continue to fight for a brighter future in a seedy Paris suburb.
4.6Dear David(en)
Shortly after comic artist Adam responds to Internet trolls, he begins experiencing sleep paralysis. As he chronicles increasingly malevolent occurrences in a series of tweets, Adam begins to believe he is being haunted by the ghost of a dead child named David.
8.5Winner Takes the Cake(es)
Sofía quits her job after confronting her misogynistic boss. Determined, she starts her own company to rival her former employer, igniting a David vs. Goliath showdown in the business world.
5.9The Adventures(th)
Joy, a secretary at a large multinational company, has an online shopping problem, likes to read adventure novels and watch travel and adventure shows. She daydreams about living a life of adventure.
9.1The United Monster Talent Agency(en)
A short comedy spoof about Universal Monsters and their everyday unconventional work done at their very own talent agency for their movies.
6.0Cosmic Chaos(en)
Battles in virtual reality, survival in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a Soviet spaceship giving a distress signal - Fantastic stories created with advanced special effects and passion.
6.7Balas & Bolinhos: O Regresso(pt)
A group of friends meet after some years apart and decide to go on a treasure hunt.
7.4Touch(is)
Soon after the break of the pandemic and realizing that his clock is ticking, Kristofer gets the urge to embark on a journey to try to find out what really happened when his Japanese girlfriend mysteriously vanished without a trace from London fifty years earlier.
7.3Piece by Piece(en)
A unique cinematic experience that invites audiences on a vibrant journey through the life of cultural icon Pharrell Williams. Told through the lens of LEGO® animation, turn up the volume on your imagination and witness the evolution of one of music's most innovative minds.
5.0Mutiny(en)
Mutiny employs a panoply of expression, gesture, and repeated movement. Its central images are of women: at home, on the street, at the workplace, at school, talking, singing, jumping on trampolines, playing the violin. The syntax of the film reflects the possibilities and limitations of speech, while “politically, physically, and realistically” flirting with the language of opposition.
9.2Un Caso Excepcional(es)
A young actress arrives late to a casting, making up a great excuse without knowing a small detail.
6.7Baby Assassins: 2 Babies(ja)
Chisato and Mahiro must pay four years of overdue fees or lose their membership in their assassin guild. They take part-time jobs, but find themselves in the middle of an armed robbery and being hunted by other assassins.
5.9Shimmy: The First Monkey King(zh)
Shimmy, a monkey newly discover superhero powers and learns how to control his extraordinary transformative abilities and prevent powerful demonic forces from sending the universe into chaos.
6.5Vera and the Pleasure of Others(es)
Seventeen-year-old Vera earns money by secretly renting out an apartment to teenagers seeking privacy, all while eavesdropping from behind a closed door. As she listens, her own desires awaken.
5.9Boudica(en)
Inspired by events in A.D. 60, Boudica follows the eponymous Celtic warrior who rules the Iceni people alongside her husband Prasutagus. When he dies at the hands of Roman soldiers, Boudica’s kingdom is left without a male heir and the Romans seize her land and property. Driven to the edge of madness and determined to avenge her husband’s death, Boudica rallies the various tribes from the region and wages an epic war against the mighty Roman empire.
Similar Movies
7.2People on Sunday(de)
A semi-documentary experimental 1930 German silent film created by amateurs with a small budget. With authentic scenes of the metropolis city of Berlin, it's the first film from the later famous screenwriters/directors Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann.
6.0The Birth of a Nation(en)
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
7.8Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans(en)
A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.
7.6Battleship Potemkin(ru)
A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resultant public demonstration, showing support, which brought on a police massacre.
7.1Nanook of the North(en)
This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.
6.9October (Ten Days that Shook the World)(ru)
Sergei M. Eisenstein's docu-drama about the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. Made ten years after the events and edited in Eisenstein's 'Soviet Montage' style, it re-enacts in celebratory terms several key scenes from the revolution.
8.1The Kid(en)
A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.
Slave of Her Senses(pl)
Pola is a beautiful but poor girl, a locksmith's daughter. Unexpectedly, she's successful as a stage dancer. After her success, she breaks with her fiancé and becomes the lover of a rich admirer. However, the fiancé does not accept her departure.
1.0The Poppy Girl's Husband(en)
A silent romantic love triangle crime melodrama about a man who gets out of prison after ten years and discovers that his wife has divorced him and married the man who sent him to prison. Worse yet, she fears he will want to exact revenge, so she sets up her new husband to frame her first husband, so he will be sent back to prison!
0.0The Primal Law(en)
silent cowboy western starring Dustin Farnum as a rancher whose partner is killed by rustlers. He takes in his partner's young son, and begins to sell his ranch, but the boy finds oil on the land.
5.3Jubilo(en)
Jubilo, a hobo, witnesses a robbery, finds work on Judge Hardy’s farm, and foils the vengeful machinations of a sinister villain.
9.0Vanity Fair(en)
In early 19th century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society.
0.0The Man Who Found Himself(en)
Alfred E.Green silent family relationship romantic melodrama
0.0No Woman(ps)
There is a world beyond our world where men say NO to Women when it comes to the making decision. Most women suffer extreme inequality, but only few women accept dangers and fights against it.
5.8Jes' Call Me Jim(en)
Happy-go-lucky Jim Fenton is in love with Miss Butterworth, the town milliner, who is taking care of little Harry Benedict while his father Paul, an inventor, is in the local insane asylum. Miss Butterworth convinces Jim that Belcher, one of the town's prominent citizens, has incarcerated Paul to steal the patents from his inventions. Jim breaks into the asylum and spirits away the enfeebled inventor......
0.0The Slim Princess(en)
Kalora is the "slim princess of Morevana," a land in which fat is prized. This distresses her family, who must marry off Kalora, before her rotund younger sister Papova may wed. To remedy this situation, Kalora's father, the governor general, throws a garden party and disguises his slim daughter in an inflated rubber suit. All goes well until the suit ruptures, deflating Kalora to her normal size....
6.5The Ten Commandments(en)
The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his receipt of the tablets and the worship of the golden calf. The second part shows the efficacy of the commandments in modern life through a story set in San Francisco. Two brothers, rivals for the love of Mary, also come into conflict when John discovers Dan used shoddy materials to construct a cathedral.





