2025 OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET (1965)
PARTISANS OF VILNA (1986)
BENYE KRIK (1926, NEW MATT DARRIAU SCORE)
A TANGO FOR RACHEL (2025)
FILM: SUNDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 21, 8:30PM
THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET 📽
At Hebrew Union College, 1 W 4th St. Admission: $10 in-person (included in a Full Festival Pass). Or pay at the door. Not available by Livestream. INFO
An inept Slovak peasant is torn between greed and guilt when the Nazi-backed bosses of his town appoint him “Aryan controller”
of an old Jewish widow’s button shop. Humor and tragedy fuse in this scathing exploration of one cowardly man’s complicity in the horrors of a totalitarian regime. Directed by Ján Kádar and Elmar Klos during a time of severe Soviet oppression in Czechoslovakia, The Shop on Main Street features intense editing and camera work which won it the Academy Award™ for Best Foreign Film in 1965.
Of special note to Yiddish theater fans is Ida Kaminska´s (1899-1980) performance which garnered her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Kaminska was born in Odessa into a leading theater family– her mother, Ester-Rokhl Kaminska (née Halperin), was a pioneering figure in the development of modern Yiddish theater, and Idaś father, Abraham Isaac Kaminski, was an accomplished actor, director and theater owner in Warsaw. Ida Kaminska went on to an iconic and staggeringly productive career as an actor, director, writer, translator, and founder of theater companies. When virulent antisemitic campaigns ravaged her work in Poland, Kaminska emigrated to New York where she died in 1980.
A discussion about the film will take place PM1 (2:30PM-3:45PM) on Monday, December 22 featuring Irena Klepfisz and Yelena Shmulenson with Eve Sicular and Josh Waletzky.
FILM: MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 22, 8:30PM
PARTISANS OF VILNA 📽
At Hebrew Union College, 1 W 4th St. Admission: $10 in-person (included in a Full Festival Pass). Or pay at the door. Not available by Livestream. INFO
An enormously riveting and inspirational tale of WWII and the Holocaust, Partisans of Vilna chronicles the amazing endeavors of the Jewish resistance fighters.
Highly acclaimed during its theatrical run, the film has been described as “a stirring, extremely honest and heart rending celebration” (New York Magazine). The 1986 documentary was directed and edited by YNY’s Josh Waletzky (Image Before My Eyes) and produced and conceived by Aviva Kempner (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg and Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg), Partisans skillfully blends songs, newsreel and archival footage with interviews of over forty Holocaust survivors to paint an eye-opening portrait of the courageous Jewish resistance in Vilna.
A discussion about the film will take place PM1 (2:30PM-3:45PM) on Wednesday, December 24 featuring Josh Waletzky and Elye Palevsky.
FILM/CONCERT: TUESDAY LUNCHTIME,
DECEMBER 23, 1:15PM
BENYE KRIK (LIVE PERFORMANCE OF NEW SCORE BY MATT DARRIAU) 📽+🎵
At Hebrew Union College, 1 W 4th St. Admission: $28 in-person (included in a Full Festival Pass). Or pay at the door. Not available by Livestream. INFO
Shot on location, the seamy Jewish underworld of Odessa is the setting for Isaac Babel’s story based on the life of
gangster king Mishka Yaponchik (“Mike the Jap”) Vinnitsky. Murder is a way of life for Benya Krik and his gang. They profit from their criminal activities until the Russian Revolution when the local commissar sets them up as a “revolutionary” regiment, complete with tattooed red stars. But this new post backfires for Benya as he finds himself ensnared in a Bolshevik trap. Inflected with klezmer, Balkan music and jazz, Matt Darriau’s (The Klezmatics/Paradox Trio) new score perfectly matches the mood of this controversial 1926 Soviet film by director Vladimir Vilner, which was banned soon after its release.
FILM: TUESDAY NIGHT, DECEMBER 23, 9:00PM
A TANGO FOR RACHEL 📽
At Hebrew Union College, 1 W 4th St. Admission: $10 in-person (included in a Full Festival Pass). Or pay at the door. Not available by Livestream. INFO
Set in 1915, Sabri Birmajer is Rachel, a religious woman who dreams of dancing tango. But her world forbids it. Determined to break the limits imposed on her, she steps into a brothel where she meets Rivka, a prostitute who unveils the true soul of tango.
In this unexpected encounter, both will discover a form of freedom that will change them forever. We are excited to show this new film by Lea Kalisch, a rising star on global Yiddish stages, who was recently named “Best First Time Director” by the Berlin Indie Film Festival.
Immediately after the film we will have an interview with the director via an intercontinental video link.