Ah, the ironies of the dream factory. In 1938, Kristallnacht was in the air, Jew-stomping was Europe's pastime of choice and the Nazi war machine was revving up to full speed, but the Yiddish cinema — movies made by Jews, about Jewish life and specifically for Jewish audiences — was immersed in cinematic fantasies about a kinder, gentler world where the greatest concern for European Jews was a lack of bread on the table or perhaps a misbehaving boyfriend.
Hence Mamele (Little Mother), in which director Joseph Green reunites with his Yidl mitn Fidl star, the iconic Molly Picon, for a starry-eyed musical comedy-melodrama about the trials and tribulations of a large Jewish family trying to make ends meet in the slums of Lodz, Poland (where the film was shot).
Picon, who was approaching 40 in real life, plays Khavtshi, the teenaged daughter charged with looking after her feeble father and unmanageable siblings, doling out advice to neighbors and in general acting every inch the "little mother" that the film's title makes her out to be. The film's idealized world and sweetly sentimental tone result in a significantly less substantial effort than many of the meatier examples of Yiddish cinema — and place Mamele in direct contrast with the cataclysmic events brewing in Europe at that moment — but the movie is still full of charm, and absolutely fascinating as a time capsule of a now vanished world. Picon herself later recalled how many Polish Jews agreed to work as extras for free, desperately hoping that some relative abroad might see the film, recognize them and help them get the hell out of Poland before the boot came down. Most of them undoubtedly didn't make it, but they live on in Mamele.
Mamele 3.5 stars (NR) Stars Molly Picon, Edmund Zayenda, Gertrude Bullman, Menashe Oppenheim and Max Bozyk.
Plays one time only, Wed., Sept. 6, 7 p.m., at the Ralph and Dorothy Dutcher Auditorium of the Golda Meir/Kent Jewish Center, 2010 Greenbriar Blvd., Clearwater. Admission is free and open to the community, but space is limited, so arrive early. For more information call (727) 736-1494.
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2006.
