THE PRINCE AND THE DYBBUK by Elwira Niewera and Piotr Rowalski
DCP/HD • POLAND/ GERMANY • 2017 • 82’ Directed by: Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rowalski Produced by: Film Art. Production, Kundschafter Filmproduktion Original languages: English, Italian, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Polish, German, Spanish A cinematic journey on the trail of Hollywood filmmaker and “human chameleon”, Michal Waszynski.Who was Moshe Waks really? A golden boy of cinema, a fraud or a man who constantly confused the illusion of film with reality?
The son of a poor Jewish blacksmith from Ukraine, died in Italy as Prince Michael Waszynski, Hollywood producer and exiled Polish aristocrat. He made more than 50 films including cinema hits with Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale. However only one film was his true obsession - „The Dybbuk “- based on an old Jewish legend, the most important and mystical Yiddish film ever made, directed by Waszynski shortly before the outbreak of the WWII.
To the American magazine „ Variety “, Waszynski once claimed to be fascinated with the downfall of great nations. The related imagery of pogroms and migration are the sights and images that Waszynski had so often witnessed in his life. It seems he had achieved almost everything he could possibly have wished, but something seemed to be stalking him, leaving him permanently restless. Waszynski kept searching for the lost print of his film „Dybbuk” which held his early memories of the Jewish shtetl and his first love. What secrets did he keep hidden in this old masterpiece of Yiddish cinema?
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