The Komediant

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The Komediant

Pesachke Burstein was a singer, a dancer and a comedian born in a Jewish town in Poland at the end of the nineteenth century. When he was 14-years-old he ran away from home to join an itinerant group of entertainers. He went on to live a life of theater, and was famous for his incredible whistle. Young Pesachke arrived in New York in 1924 and soon became a shining star in the Golden Age of Yiddish Theater.  In America he met a young actress named Lillian Lucas. After the war, the couple had twins: Susan and Mike (Mike Burstein who appears on Broadway stages), or as they were known on stage, Zissele and Mottele. The family wandered around the world, looking for whatever remained of a Jewish audience, who had been mostly exterminated. The family saga of the four Bursteins reveals the brief history in the stormy but magical heyday of Yiddish Theater.

Festivals and Awards:

The Israel Film Academy Award 1999; First Prize at the Haifa International Film Festival, Israel, 1999; Best Editing Award at DocAviv Film Festival, Israel, 2000; Mississippi Film Festival, 2000; HotDocs International Film Festival, 2001; Jewish Film Festival, San Francisco, 2001; Jewish Film Festival, Berlin, 2001

Director: Arnon Goldfinger

Producer: Arnon Goldfinger, Amir Harel, Oshra Shwartz-Reim

Cinematographer: Yoram Millo

Editor: Einat Glaser-Zarhin

Supporter(s): New Fund for Cinema and Television, Keshet, the Film Project, National Council for Culture and the Arts, the Avraham Y. Lerner Foundation, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, National Authority for Yiddish Culture

Script: Oshra Schwartz-Reim

Subtitles: English, Hebrew

Film Name in Hebrew: הקומדיאנטים

Pesachke Burstein was a singer, a dancer and a comedian born in a Jewish town in Poland at the end of the nineteenth century. When he was 14-years-old he ran away from home to join an itinerant group of entertainers. He went on to live a life of theater, and was famous for his incredible whistle. Young Pesachke arrived in New York in 1924 and soon became a shining star in the Golden Age of Yiddish Theater.  In America he met a young actress named Lillian Lucas. After the war, the couple had twins: Susan and Mike (Mike Burstein who appears on Broadway stages), or as they were known on stage, Zissele and Mottele. The family wandered around the world, looking for whatever remained of a Jewish audience, who had been mostly exterminated. The family saga of the four Bursteins reveals the brief history in the stormy but magical heyday of Yiddish Theater.

Festivals and Awards:

The Israel Film Academy Award 1999; First Prize at the Haifa International Film Festival, Israel, 1999; Best Editing Award at DocAviv Film Festival, Israel, 2000; Mississippi Film Festival, 2000; HotDocs International Film Festival, 2001; Jewish Film Festival, San Francisco, 2001; Jewish Film Festival, Berlin, 2001

 

Director: Arnon Goldfinger

Producer: Arnon Goldfinger, Amir Harel, Oshra Shwartz-Reim

Cinematographer: Yoram Millo

Editor: Einat Glaser-Zarhin

Supporter(s): New Fund for Cinema and Television, Keshet, the Film Project, National Council for Culture and the Arts, the Avraham Y. Lerner Foundation, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, National Authority for Yiddish Culture

Script: Oshra Schwartz-Reim

Subtitles: English, Hebrew

Film Name in Hebrew: הקומדיאנטים

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