MEDIA CONTACT: Terri Berns
561-297-1164, tberns@fau.edu

FAU Libraries' Kultur Series Presents
"Yidl Mitn Fidl" Film Screening on January 18
An International Hit in its Time Featuring Molly Picon, Beloved Star of Yiddish Theater

What: FAU Libraries' KULTUR Series Presents a "Yidl Mitn Fidl" Film Screening on January 18
An International Hit in its Time Featuring Molly Picon, Beloved Star of Yiddish Theater

When: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 at 3 p.m.

Where: FAU University Center
Live Oak Pavilion, Room D
777 Glades Road, Boca Raton

Cost: Free and open to the public

An international hit in its time, it was one of the three top-grossing Polish movies of 1936. The movie was shot mostly on location, by U.S. immigrant and co-director Joseph Green, in his native Poland.

This chipper tale of a girl who dresses as a boy in order to join a band of itinerant klezmer musicians and save herself and her father from poverty was essentially a vehicle for the glorious shtick of Molly Picon. Picon was the beloved star of Yiddish theater, who successfully crossed to the big screen, without significantly changing her act or her cheeky-waif persona.

Shot in the predominantly Jewish town of Kazimierz, the movie boasts a terrific wedding scene complete with a nifty montage of the wedding guests. The film has a fresh appeal for the jaded urbanites among us, and there's something oddly contemporary about the way the narrative roots for its women - a bride who runs away from her own wedding, and a cross-dressing girl who ends up an international diva. For all its buoyant optimism, Yidl Mitn Fidl carries, with hindsight, some tragic baggage. It was the last Yiddish film to be made before the Germans invaded Poland.

For additional information, call 561-297-2116, visit http://www.fau.edu or email lysca@fau.edu.

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