JIFF: The Light Ahead (1939)

“An astonishing artifact that is equal parts vaudeville schtick, Talmudic exegesis, and ghetto melodrama.” – Village Voice

Made on the eve of WWII, this 1939 Yiddish film classic by Edgar G. Ulmer—adapted from a Mendele Mokher Sforim tale—is a sweetly romantic part-comedy, part-satire. David Opatoshu and Helen Beverley, stars from New York’s Artef and Yiddish Art Theaters, are magnetising as two passionate but impoverished lovers who dream of a better life in Odessa. They want to get married, and they dream of a future that transcends their own limitations.

Offering a meditation on hope, love, and the Jewish faith, The Light Ahead also reflects a painful awareness of the events that will soon overcome European Jewry.

Australian Premiere of the new 4K digital restoration of the film. 

Film restoration by The National Center for Jewish Film and supplied from the archive of the center. 

Rating

E

Language

Yiddish (English subtitles)

Cast

Helen Beverly, David Opatoshu, Isidore Cashier

Director

Edgar G. Ulmer