Der Dybbuk (1937-2017)

Film and Live Performance

Michael Waszynski (Poland) with a new edition by Adi Kaplan, Shachar Carmel & Sala-manca

Live performance by Lea Mauas and Diego Rotman (Sala-manca group) & The Jerusalem Street Orchestra, conducted by Ido Shpitalnik

״The dead were returned to life, and a culture long vanished, wiped out by the Holocaust, was resurrected on the screen” (Ira Konigsberg)

A new, re-edited version of the Yiddish film will be screened with live music and dubbing performance in the courtyard of the former Jerusalem Leprosarium (Hansen House), a venue no less gothic than the film’s aesthetics.

The new, film-performance version is based on the film directed by Michael Waszynsky (1937), based upon S. Ansky's play Der Dybbuk. Ansky wrote the play after completing the ethnographic expedition he organized between 1912-1914. The play (and film) tells the story of the ill-fated love between Hanan and Lea, the possession of Lea's body by Hanan's soul, the exorcism ceremony, and death as resolution – a re-encounter of the lovers in the next world.

Adi Kaplan, Shahar Carmel, and Sala-manca not only re-edited the film, they also replaced the original music composed by Henekh Kohn and the cantorial songs performed by Gershon Sirotta, with a new score. Performed live by the Jerusalem Street Orchestra, conducted by Ido Shpitalnik, the score is an adapted version of the Vltva (The Moldau), the second symphonic poem of Má vlast (My Homeland), by Czech composer Bedřich Smetana.  The use of Smetana’s Moldau as a clear reference to Israel’s national anthem – resonating it, but different – creates a liminal sonic soundscape incapable of defining an accurate sense of place or ideology.

Lea Mauas and Diego Rotman of the Sala-manca group are professional and real life partners, possessing the voices of the “dead but eternal” characters, originally performed by another real-life couple, Lili Liliana (Leah) and Leon Liebgold (Hannan)

In the spirit of The Dybbuk, the artists visit the archive instead of the cemetery, and invite the dead to dance with the living once again.

With the support of The National Authority for Yiddish Culture, Ostrovsky Family Fund, Hansen House, Jerusalem Municipality, Bet Shalom Aleichem, and the Polish Institute.