Yolande zauberman biography of abraham hamilton

Movie review

XX 1/2 "Ivan and Abraham," with Roma Alexandrovitch, Sacha Iakovlev, Vladimir Machkov, Maria Lipkina.

Yolande zauberman biography of abraham lincoln Written and directed by Yolande Zauberman. Varsity, Sunday through Tuesday. No rating. Set in Poland between the world wars, this Yiddish-language drama is the first fiction film by Yolande Zauberman, a year-old documentary filmmaker whose Polish-Jewish parents just barely survived the Holocaust. They live in a small Jewish community near Poland's eastern border, where the boys' close relationship is tested by Catholic peasants, seductive Gypsies, a dissolute estate owner who sells off his property, and an outcast communist whose relationship with Abraham's sister defies an arranged marriage.

Written and directed by Yolande Zauberman. Varsity, Sunday through Tuesday. No rating.

Set in Poland between the world wars, this Yiddish-language drama is the first fiction film by Yolande Zauberman, a year-old documentary filmmaker whose Polish-Jewish parents just barely survived the Holocaust.

The title refers to a Gentile/ Jewish friendship between 9-year-old Abraham (Roma Alexandrovitch) and his year-old Russian/Christian friend, Ivan (Sacha Iakovlev), who lives with Abraham's family as an apprentice.

Yolande zauberman biography of abraham In s Poland, Christian boy Ivan goes to live with a Jewish family to learn a trade. He becomes friends with Abraham, the son of the family. However, anti-Semitism is rife in their environment, and they flee to escape an upcoming conflict. Journeying together, they demonstrate their inseparability. This article related to a French film of the s is a stub.

They live in a small Jewish community near Poland's eastern border, where the boys' close relationship is tested by Catholic peasants, seductive Gypsies, a dissolute estate owner who sells off his property, and an outcast communist whose relationship with Abraham's sister defies an arranged marriage.

It's a coming-of-age movie complicated by overwhelming political and cultural forces, among them Abraham's suspicious father, who distrusts Ivan's influence on his son and plans to take Abraham away from the shtetl.

Aware of his intentions, Abraham cuts off his sidecurls and runs off with Ivan to the country, where they're confronted with anti-Semitic myths, legends about Gypsy "evil eyes" and, ultimately, racist tragedy.

Photographed in wide-screen black-and-white in the Ukraine and Belorussia, "Ivan and Abraham" is a handsome, moody, dramatically sketchy film that almost requires an extensive background in Polish-Jewish history.

At times even this won't help; the script sometimes seems to be missing a few beats.

Still, individual sequences and performances are strong enough to make up for much of the patchiness. Particularly arresting: an encounter with Polish horsemen who circle the boys, a budding romance between Ivan and a Gypsy girl, and veteran actor Daniel Olbrychski's appearance as a half-mad horse-dealer who promises Abraham a foal.

The Varsity's other first-run movie this weekend is "Toward the Within: Dead Can Dance," which will be shown tonight and tomorrow with Godfrey Reggio's prize-winning short, "Anima Mundi."

A minute concert film that begins with a series of rapid-fire images from Ron Fricke's "Baraka" (), "Toward the Within" never matches the visual vitality of that opening.

The rest is a prosaic document of the final concert of the Irish/Australian band's tour.

For fans, the main attraction will be up-close looks at the group's members, especially Lisa Gerrard, an earnest Australian native who was brought up in a Greek-Turkish community and recalls Sinead O'Connor and the folkies of the early s. The group's other main attraction, Brendan Perry, is a jovial Cockney/Irish singer whose style contrasts sharply with Gerrard's more solemn, studied tone.

Dead Can Dance's music was used on the soundtrack of "Baraka." The producer-director of "Toward the Within," Mark Magidson, acted as a producer on "Baraka" and Fricke's IMAX movie, "Chronos." Their new movie works best as a kind of teaser-trailer for "Baraka," which is returning next weekend to the Varsity.