The Jewish Soul: Classics of Yiddish Cinema - The Dybbuk

A young bride is possessed by the spirit of her dead husband’s dislocated soul. Based on the Yiddish theater’s most memorable play. “The most heavily atmospheric and ‘artistic’ of the Yiddish talkies.” — J. Hoberman, Bridge of Light.

Too often segregated within an academic and cultural niche, Yiddish cinema is in fact a varied and vibrant genre ripe for reappraisal. Whether shot in the fields of Poland or makeshift studios in Manhattan, Yidishe Kino endure not only as precious documents of a vanishing culture, but a fascinating genre unto itself, with its unique blend of schmaltz and shtick, a dash of operetta, often overlaid with brooding atmosphere. Restored by Lobster Films, Paris, presented by Kino Lorber, showcases careful new translations by Yiddish cultural historian Allen Lewis Rickman, which preserve the clever wordplay and conveys the fluidity of the multi-lingual dialogue.