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| The Vow |
One of a handful of memorable Yiddish films made in rapid succession in Poland on the eve of the Holocaust,
The Vow is a window into a vanished world already wedged between tradition and modernity.
Loosely based on the same folkloric story that underpins S. Ansky's classic play,
The Dybbuk, the film tells of two friends who, on completing their Yeshiva studies, make a celebratory vow pledging their unborn children, Rachel and Mendel, in marriage. Many years later, Rachel's father dies and the pledge is forgotten.
As events unfold, the two children accidentally meet and fall in love, but their short-lived romance is thwarted by circumstance.
Directed by Henryk Szabo (who, like so many of his Jewish colleagues, was already an established figure in mainstream Polish cinema before turning to Yiddish filmmaking; he is thought to have perished in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942), the film is notable for its many authentic scenes of shtetl life and the musical score, which is a mixture of Yiddish songs and popular tunes. The cast is headed by Dina Halpern, who would later become the grande dame of the Yiddish theatre.
