Welcome to Yiddishland

The Great Yiddish Love(en)

Set in Berlin and New York's Lower East Side, The Great Yiddish Love stars the self-exiled Marlene Dietrich and her Nazi-endorsed replacement, Zarah Leander. It is a melodrama of love, emigration, and betrayal reassembled from Hollywood, German Ufa and Yiddish films from the 1930s and 40s.

The Paper Brigade(fr)

Lithuania, 1941, during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of texts on Jewish culture, stolen by the Germans, are gathered in Vilnius to be classified, either to be stored or to be destroyed. A group of Jewish scholars and writers, commissioned by the invaders to carry out the sorting operations, but reluctant to collaborate and determined to save their legacy, hide many books in the ghetto where they are confined. This is the epic story of the Paper Brigade.

A bissele Glik(de)

A Yiddish World Remembered(en)

Elliott Gould narrates this affectionate look at life in the shtetls of Eastern Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries. "It's unreal that all this could have just disappeared," says Polish native Mariem Adler Stok, one of the seniors whose memories of this "Yiddish world" give this documentary its life. The hour traces Jewish history in Europe and explores Jews' focus on education, their religious customs, clothing, food, music and theater.

A Little Family Conversation(fr)

The questioning of Jewish heritage and identity via the portrait of a diversed family, across Belgium and the United States.

40 Nickels(en)

Based her grandfather’s boyhood in St. Louis, Yasmin Gorenberg tells a story of the pain passed from refugee parents to their children and the hope that can overcome it. “40 Nickels” captures the image of a generation of immigrants to the United States in the 1920’s and 1930’s and through that spotlights the effects of the 1919 pogroms in Eastern Europe. This is a film about parents and children: how trauma never leaves a family, and how hope and resilience is also passed down. It asks the question: Can a new generation look at the world with wonder rather than fear?

Motel the Operator(yi)

Motel, a poor laborer, loving husband and new father, leads cloakmakers in a strike for better working conditions. When he is severely injured by strikebreakers, his wife, Esther, and infant son are left destitute. Desperate to save her starving child, Esther gives him up for adoption to a wealthy couple, and then commits suicide. The richly-rendered beautiful Yiddish songs by Sholem Secunda featuring Cantor Leibele Waldman and Joel Feig's famous choir are a good example of the bittersweet melodrama in the finest tradition of the Yiddish theater.

An American Pickle(en)

An immigrant worker at a pickle factory is accidentally preserved for 100 years and wakes up in modern day Brooklyn. He learns his only surviving relative is his great grandson, a computer coder who he can’t connect with.

The Man Without a World(en)

The Man Without a World is credited to the legendary (and imaginary) 1920s Soviet director, Yevgeny Antinov. But the film is anything but old. In fact, Antinov himself is the creation of contemporary filmmaker Eleanor Antin. Her film is a moving, comic melodrama set in a typical shtetl (village) in Poland. The Jews’ struggle against poverty and racial hatred is complicated by their own division into hostile political factions of the religious orthodoxy, assimilationists, socialists, Zionists, anarchists and survivors. While the Jews of the shtetl pursue their loves, politics, religion, business and dreams for the future, the Angel of Death is ever near...

Gold for Fools(en)

Raised in rural isolation by an extremist Hasidic sect, Chaim is torn between his devotion to his grandmother, an aging Holocaust survivor, and his attraction to a sexy blond in a Liberty car insurance ad.

Origins of the Silver War(en)

In 2014 Formula 1 introduces one of the biggest technical changes in the history of the competition, the new V6 Turbo engines. From now cars will be hybrid, combining combustion and electrical energy in the power train. The team which did the best job, adapting their cars to the new regulations was Mercedes. Both drivers of the team, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are the only drivers with chances to win the 2014 Formula 1 championship. Both are friends since many years, when they were childrens, but now they have to fight on track every race to conquer the glory in Formula 1. This is the story of a new rivalry between old friends: Lewis Hamilton vs Nico Rosberg. This the origin of The Silver War.

The Castle(pt)

Heavily guarded, a luxurious castle lies on the bank of the Pinheiros River, in São Paulo.

Passion Project(en)

Explores the ten-year journey of adapting Uzodinma Iweala's 2005 novel "Beasts of No Nation" into the 2015 film.

Fireboys(en)

Fireboys is the untold story of young men incarcerated in California who are offered a way out: by fighting wildfires. Immersive and personal, this coming-of-age story examines a correctional path that is both hopeful and destructive.

Murder in a Teacup(en)

When members of a workforce began falling violently ill, locals believed a virus was sweeping the area, but after the death of two men it became clear that the only impurity was a serial poisoner with a toxic past.

Edge. Portrait of the Artist's Wife Against the Background of the Era(ru)

Biography of the ordained artist and his wife…

With Roman Karmen. Travel in the Youth(ru)

The film is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Roman Carmen. The authors tracked down his former students, whom he brought to the documentary. Almost half a century ago, they, then still children, first crossed the threshold of the VGIK when they passed the exams.

Mikhail Bulgakov in the Caucasus(ru)

A documentary film by the famous Russian director Georgy Natanson, dedicated to the work of the great writer Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, was released in 2004. In the film "Mikhail Bulgakov in the Caucasus" we are talking about the early years of the writer's work (1918 — 1921). The film tells about an important period in Bulgakov's life when he lived in the Caucasus. It was there that he decided to devote himself to literary work, wrote his first plays and feuilletons...

A Woman's Place(en)

A Woman's Place is the first film about the UK women's liberation movement. Crockford and her co-producers Ellen Adams and Tony Wickert document the movement's first national conference and march and examine its demands. The film records impassioned discussions and speeches, as well as the humour of the marchers. It also includes interviews with members of the public who give their perspective on women's liberation Crockford made the film as an attempt to see 'whether other people could be engaged by what I believed in'.

Anatomie d'une chute : L'ascension de Justine Triet(fr)

The documentary explores the Triet method by diving behind the scenes of the film Anatomy of a Fall, Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2023. Through the testimonies of Justine Triet, Arthur Harari, and the actors, it invites you into the mysteries of the making of the film, and of the director's cinema.