Broken Barriers (Khavah)
New York Jewish Film Festival 2020
January 15 - 28, 2020
This long-lost 1919 silent gem, based on the same Sholem Aleichem stories as Fiddler on the Roof, follows Tevye the milkman’s daughter Khavah, who falls in love with the gentile boy Fedka and must navigate the reverberations from this with her community and her family. Restored by the National Center for Jewish Film. With live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin.
This 1919 silent is the first American film based on the same Sholem Aleichem stories as Fiddler on the Roof, but produced 50 years before the blockbuster musical. Unlike most adaptations of Aleichem’s work, Broken Barriers (Khavah) focuses not on Tevye the milkman, but on his daughter Khavah, who falls in love with the gentile boy Fedka and must navigate the reverberations from this with both her community and her family. A print of the film, long thought to be lost, was recently discovered by one of the producer’s great-granddaughters. The NYJFF will present the world premiere of the National Center for Jewish Film’s beautiful new restoration with live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin.
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