SHOLEM ALEICHEM review by John Delia

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SHOLEM ALEICHEM

 

 

Directed by: Joseph Dorman

MPAA Rating: Unrated

Genre: Biographical Documentary

Running Time: 1hr 33min

Produced by: Riverside Films

 

 

 

 

 

 

By John Delia

 

Sometimes you come across a film that surprises you with an interesting portrait of a person who achieved fame after his death.  This is the case of Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness, a biographical documentary about Sholem Rabinowitz the writer of the musical Fiddler on the Roof.  His early life imbues the bitterness of Russian anti-Semitism, abject poverty and then a sense of social justice for himself and fellow Jewish immigrants who came to the United States.

 

Born 1859 in a small town called Pereyaslav near Kiev, Russia, and two years after Sholem moved with his family to Voronko, Russia a Jewish market town.  Ten years later his father takes the family back to Pereyaslav after his business goes bad.  Being the son of a poor innkeeper, Sholem grows up in poverty. So begins the film that follows his schooling, the first writing and the long road that includes the persecution of Jews following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II who they blamed for his death, his marriage to a wealthy landowner’s daughter, his investing in the stock market, and much more till his death and largest funeral procession ever on streets of New York City.

 

 

Interesting and nicely told using film archive footage, photos, with the voices of actors Peter Riegert and Rachel Dratch, and interviews with leading experts such as Columbia’s Dan Miron, Harvard’s Ruth Wisse, David Roskies of the Jewish Theological Seminary, author and Yiddish translator Hillel Halkin, Aaron Lansky, the founder of the National Yiddish Book Center, and Bel Kauffmann, Sholem Aleichem’s own granddaughter.

 

I liked the way it plays out, sort of surreal in a good way.  I felt the hurt, enjoyed the comedy and the commentary.  But, Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness is more of a secular tribute to a great man who provided an insight into some dark times.  It’s his legacy that survives and supports the history of the trials and tribulations of the Jewish people who have fought for their lives and cultural upbringing. 

 

The film is unrated but contains some disturbing images and violence.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS: A historical piece with a very good presentation. (B)