The Dybbuk. A Tale of Wandering Souls (2015)

Original title

Dybuk. Rzecz o wędrówce dusz

Directed by

Krzysztof Kopczyński

Genre

documentary film

Country

Poland

Runtime

1h 26m

Rated

15

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary follows a yearly pilgrimage of hasidic jews to a city in ukraine. It shows rising tensions as a far-right ukrainian group places monuments that commemorate historical anti-jewish violence. The film examines how old hatreds clash with modern politics.

tenseunsettlingthoughtfulobservationalsoberingpoliticalgritty

What happens

The Dybbuk. A Tale of Wandering Souls is a 2015 documentary film by Polish filmmaker and director Krzysztof Kopczyński. The film tells the story of a conflict between Orthodox Jews and Ukrainian far-right activists in Uman, a city in Ukraine, just before the 2013 Euromaidan protests. Every year, 30,000 Hasidim journey to Uman to celebrate the Jewish New Year at the gravesite of their holy leader Rebbe Nachman. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian far-right group erects a cross at the site of Hasidic prayers and builds a monument to Cossacks who slaughtered thousands of Jews and Poles in 1768 during a national rebellion. The film opened the 55th Krakow Film Festival, where it received the Silver Hobby-Horse for the Director of the Best Documentary Film. The prize was awarded "for courage and non-conformity in showing an extremely complicated and universal problem of reciprocal intolerance when facing the dangers of the contemporary world." On 6th Odesa International Film Festival the film received FIPRESCI prize for a feature-length film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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