The Light Ahead

Selected Film Festival Screenings

Yiddish Film Festival, Segal Centre; Montreal (2013)
Edgar G. Ulmer Retrospective, Cinémathèque Française, Paris (2012)
Edgar G. Ulmer Retrospective, Filmhouse Cinema, UK (2009)
Toronto Jewish Film Festival (2008)
Goethe-Institut Turin, Italy (2008)
Yiddish Foundation, Amsterdam (2008)
Green Mountain Film Festival, Vermont (2007)
Chicago YIVO Summer Series (2007)
Haifa Jewish Film Festival (2005)
UC Berkley Art Museum, Berkley, California (2005)
British Film Institute, London (2004)
Museum Jewish Heritage, New York (2004)
American Museum Moving Image, New York (2004)
Vancouver Jewish Film Festival (2004)
Musee d’Art de Histoire du Judaisme, Paris (2002)
Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles (2001)
Vienna Jewish Film Festival, Austria (2001)
Jewish Film Week, Austria (2001)
Festival del Popoli, Italy (2000)

Synopsis

The Light Ahead is possibly the greatest of Edgar G. Ulmer’s shtetl films. Here, the director counterpoints his pastoral Green Fields to criticize the poverty and superstition that oppress a pair of star-crossed lovers. Made on the eve of World War II, The Light Ahead is at once romantic, expressionist, and painfully conscious of the danger about to engulf European Jews.

Impoverished and disabled lovers Fishke and Hodel dream of life in the big city of Odessa, free from the poverty and stifling old-world prejudices of the shtetl. The benevolent and enlightened bookseller Mendele helps them, turning small-town superstitions to their advantage. Based on Mendele Mokher Seforim's story of love frustrated by small-town ignorance, this luminous allegory of escape marries Edgar Ulmer's masterful direction with superb acting by members of New York's Artef and Yiddish Art Theaters.

NCJF Film Restoration

Restoration was completed with funding from Sidney and Dorothy Stogel, Arnold and Ruth Picker & Herman Axelbank

1982 Restoration © The National Center for Jewish Film
Producer Sharon Pucker Rivo
Director Henry Felt
Assistant Producer Miriam Saul Krant
Production Assistant Rhonda Alper
Prologue David Roskies
Additional Subtitles David Roskies
Laboratory John E. Allen
Titles The Title Works, Jeff Neil

Critical Acclaim

“A gem radiating warmth and honesty.”
– Jewish Weekly

“An astonishing artifact that is equal parts vaudeville schtick, Talmudic exegesis, and ghetto melodrama.”
– Village Voice

“Yiddish film producers will probably look to The Light Ahead... for their inspiration when new productions are under consideration. As well they might, for the film touches undreamed of heights.”
– New York World Telegram, 23 Sept. 1939

“Central to the film is a riveting performance by Helen Beverley as the blind orphan, Hodel... Beverley and Opatoshu are perhaps the most beautiful couple in the history of Yiddish cinema, and their scenes have a touching erotic chemistry.”
– J. Hoberman, Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds

Credits

Producer/ Director Edgar G. Ulmer
Screenplay Chaver Pahver, Sherle (Shirley) Ulmer, Edgar G. Ulmer
Based on stories by S.Y. Abramovitch (Mendele Mokher Seforim)

Cast
Helen Beverley (Hodel)
David Opatoshu (Fishke)
Isidore Cashier (Mendele Moicher Sforim)
Rosetta Bialis (Dropke)
Anna Guskin (Gitel)
Jennie Cashier (Dube)
Wolf Mercur
Judel Dubinsky
Leon Seidenberg
Morris Shorr
Tillie Rabinowitz
Celia Bodkin

Purchase DVD

The Light Ahead
$36.00 plus shipping
Home Use Only DVD (Not for Classroom/Institutional Use)
Does not include Public Performance Rights
Home Use Policy (pdf)

The Light Ahead
$72.00 plus shipping
Classroom/Institutional Use Only DVD

Does not include Public Performance Rights
Institutional Use Policy (pdf)

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ALSO WITH HELEN BEVERLEY

Green Fields

Overture to Glory