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Black Honey, The Life and Poetry of Avraham Sutzkever

  • Israel
  • Documentary
  • 2018
  • 76 min.
  • Director(s): Uri Barbash
  • Producer(s): Yair Qedar

Synopsis

As long as Abraham Sutzkever lived, he wouldn’t let a film about his life be made. Today, eight years after his passing, Black Honey tells the incredible story of the greatest Yiddish poet of modern times. The man who led the Paper Brigade underground movement that saved Jewish manuscripts from the Nazis, survived the WWII due to Stalin sending him a private rescue plane, testified in the Nuremberg Trials, and immigrated to Israel in 1947 where he led Yiddish culture, while writing in astonishing vitality.

This film is part of a special project, The Hebrews, dedicated to Jewish poets.
The project won a Special Mention Award at the Haifa International Film Festival “Between Israeli and Jewish Identity Competition Section”, 2018

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Credits

Director(s)

Uri Barbash

Producer(s)

Yair Qedar

Co-Producer(s)

Itay Barkan, Hadas Kalderon

Script

Uri Barbash, Hadas Kalderon

Cinematography

Talia Tulik Galon

Editor

Ori Derdikman

Original Music

Alon Lotringer

Original Language

Hebrew, English, Yiddish

Subtitles

English, Hebrew, French, Russian, German

Sound Design

Ami Arad

Supported by

Makor Foundation, Israel Film Service, Avi Chai Foundation, Gesher Multicultural Film Fund, Cultural Administration, Israel Ministry of Culture and Sport, The Claims Committee, The GoodWill Foundation, Beit Shalom Aleichem

Photos Courtesy of

Yair Qedar, Itay Barkan

Festival Highlights

  • Winner

    Special Award
    Warsaw Jewish Film Festival
    2019
  • Winner

    Yad VaShem Chairman's Award for Artistic Achievement in Holocaust related film
    Jerusalem International Film Festival
    2018
  • Winner*

    Special Mention Award at the Haifa International Film Festival "Between Israeli and Jewish Identity Competition
    Haifa International Film Festival
    2018
  • Winner

    Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary
    LA Israeli Film Festival
    2018

Jewish Motifs International Film Festival, Poland, 2019

IMAJ - Israeli Film Festival, Belgium, 2019

Lund University, Sweden, 2019

Washington Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2019

Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Canada, 2019

Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture, Germany, 2019

Filmpalette Köln, Germany, 2019

LA Israeli Film Festival, USA, 2018

Cottbus International Film Festival, Germany, 2018

Jerusalem International Film Festival, Israel, 2018

Reviews

  • "A unique artistically and historically valuable project, that preserves wonderfully, through documentary films, pearls of poetry and literature, which some of them, regrettably, are vanishing "
    - Jury, Haifa International Film Festival, 2018