Based on a 1907 play by Jacob Gordin, this 1939 Yiddish film, believed to be the last prewar Yiddish film produced in Poland features such greats as Ida Kaminska, Szhymon Dzigan and Yisroel Szumacher. The dialogues and song lyrics were written by the wonderful Polish Yiddish novelist, dramatist, poet and intellectual Alter Kacyzne who also wrote the script for the 1937 Yiddish film “The Dybbuk”. For a full cast see: https://tinyurl.com/y5g54j5r.
Read More

NEW YORK — There are entire libraries of books that describe “the Old Country,” the Jewish communities in the cities and shtetls of Europe prior to the attempted Nazi genocide. There is far less of it on film, especially primary source documentaries. The percentage of what is easily available is about to shoot up, thanks to a new digital print of “Mir Kumen On (Children Must Laugh).”

This educational film from 1936 (or, to be fair, propaganda film, but more on that in a moment) is one of the precious few surviving movies evoking Jewish life in Poland prior to its poisoning from external, racist forces.

Read More