Sarah Cohen Movies
In this experimental film that deals metaphorically with Arab-Jewish relations in the Middle East, left-leaning director Amos Gitai uses Biblical history to comment on the current situation in Israel and its vicinity. This story deals in part with the Jewess Esther and how she managed to save her people from extermination after she became the wife of the king of Persia. But the setting is a slum near Haifa and the ancient city of Acre. As the mummers walk through their parts with lines taken from the scriptures, the camera moves slowly through scenes or stops entirely. Sounds of the modern world start to intrude on the ancient setting, and in the final sequences of the film, the actors now wear modern clothes as they walk through the streets of Acre, each telling their own personal history -- and a parallel emerges between the ancient story of Esther saving the Jews and the modern Middle East. The cast is comprised of both Arab and Jewish actors. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Simona Binyamini, Shmuel Wolf, (more)
Norman Jewison's adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical is set in the Ukranian ghetto village of Anatevka (the film was actually lensed in Yugoslavia). Israeli actor Topol repeats his London stage role as Tevye the milkman, whose equilibrium is constantly being challenged by his poverty, the prejudicial attitudes of non-Jews, and the romantic entanglements of his five daughters. Whenever the weight of the world becomes too much for him, Tevye carries on lengthy conversations with God, who does not answer but is at least more willing to listen than the milkman's remonstrative wife Golde. After arranging a marriage between his oldest daughter Tzeitel and wealthy butcher Lazar Wolf, Tevye is forced to do some quick rearranging when the girl falls in love with poor tailor Motel Kamzoil. Fancying himself more broad-minded than his gentile oppressors, Tevye cannot accept the notion that his other daughter Chava would want to marry Fyedka, a non-Jew. And after shouting the praises of "tradition," Tevye must change his tune-and his entire life-when he and his neighbors are forced out of Anatevka by the Czar's minions. Topol's co-stars include Norma Crane as Golde, Yiddish theater legend Molly Picon as Yente the matchmaker, and Leonard Frey as Motel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Topol, Norma Crane, (more)
