The Komediant

At once exhilarating and poignant, this Israeli documentary recalls the golden age of Yiddish theatre, while focusing on one of its greatest stars, Pesache'ke Burstein, and his family (who got in on the act, some more willingly than others). Archival footage, vintage recordings, performance clips, and interviews with family members and Yiddish stage veterans (including Fyvush Finkel of Picket Fences) are combined to chart Burstein's legendary career of bringing joy to Jewish audiences, particularly those who survived the horrors of the Holocaust. In one moving moment, wife Lillian Lux tearfully recalls being approached by an audience member who tells her that some who perished in the death camp gas chambers went to their deaths bravely singing one of Burstein's signature songs. Some of the digressions into Yiddish theatrical lore are fascinating, with one segment recalling the "brutal, terrifying" auditions aspiring actors had to endure before their peers in the Hebrew Actors Union (the great teacher Stella Adler is said to have fainted on that stage). Some family wounds still appear raw, as with virtuoso ventriloquist daughter Susan, who still resents missing out on normal teen activities as part of the family act (there's a great moment when she is reunited with a facsimile of her former dummy, Jerry Mahoney; it is, to say the least, a bittersweet reunion). The Komediant recaptures a bygone era, and preserves a once-vital part of Jewish culture. Mazel tov! Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include the featurette “Pesach'ke Burstein: Rare Archival Material” (11 min.), four minutes of “Mike Burstyn and Bruce Adler: Singing 2 Yiddish Classics” at New York's Hebrew Actor's Union, and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a solid documentary.] (D. Liebenson)