Atlanta Jewish Film Festival – Broken Barriers

Decades before Fiddler, this long-lost 1919 silent cinematic gem is the first known American version of Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem’s beloved tales. Unlike most adaptations, this version focuses not on milkman Tevye, but on his headstrong daughter Khavah who falls for Fedka, a gentile boy. Their impulsive, forbidden romance echoes through her rigid family and community. Despite the modest production, the raw survivalism of the rustic Czarist Russian shtetl is palpable. Newly restored, this somber melodrama evokes the tension between the New World’s bright promise and harsh lessons of the Old.

With live musical accompaniment by composer Donald Sosin.