Broken Barriers
This 1919 silent is the first American film based on the same Sholem Aleichem stories as Fiddler on the Roof, but produced 50 years before the blockbuster musical. Unlike most adaptations of Aleichem’s work, Broken Barriers (Khavah) focuses not on Tevye the milkman, but on his daughter Khavah, who falls in love with the gentile boy Fedka and must navigate the reverberations from this with both her community and her family.
Directed by Charles E. Davenport · Written by Sholom Aleichem
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Cast
- Alice Hastings Khavah
- Alexander Tenenholtz Fedka
- Giacomo Masuroff Tobias, Khavah's Father
- Billie Wilson Khavah's Mother
- Sonia Radin Parasha, Fedka's Mother
- Phil Sanford Ivan, Fedka's Father
- Anna Kay Khavah's Sister
- Raymond Friedgen Fedka's Chum
Make it a double feature
3h 32m together
Broken Barriers
The Ten Commandments
A close match in mood and era.
