The Prince and the Dybbuk

Michal Waszyński (1904-1965), who was born Moshe Waks in what is now the Ukraine, and was later known to many of his European friends and colleagues as the Prince of Poland, was a filmmaker whose most famous directorial effort was The Dybbuk (1937), a Yiddish-language adaptation of Sholom Ansky’s play about a young woman haunted by the spirit of her dead lover. The film is recognized for offering an important window into the shtetl culture that existed in eastern Europe prior to the Holocaust. Filmmakers Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski’s documentary includes footage from The Dybbuk, but only as a part of a general biography that paints Waszyński as a man who lived a colorful life—becoming, for example, a photographer for a Polish division attached to the Soviet army during World War II, a member of the Italian aristocracy (adopted by a well-to-do Roman family and supported by a countess), and a producer on several huge films made in Spain by Samuel Bronston, including The Fall of the Roman Empire. The major focus, however, is on the secrets Waszyński kept, which include the reasons for changing his name and converting to Christianity (connected with wanting to escape an unhappy past and grief—with perhaps a sense of guilt—over the extermination of family members back in Ukraine), and his repressed homosexuality. One can quibble about the hazy, impressionistic style adopted by the filmmakers, but the wealth of archival material and newly-shot interviews here make for a compelling story about a fascinating and mysterious man. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)