The Dybbuk on AllMovie

S. Ansky's popular Yiddish-language play The Dybbuk was definitively filmed in this 1938 Polish production. A young man and young woman, promised in marriage before they are even born, fall in love with one another on their own volition. The girl's father, seeking out a wealthier son-in-law, tries to wriggle out of the deal. In desperation, the boy kills himself -- whereupon his soul is transferred to the girl during the wedding ceremony. It is up to Rabbi Azrielke (Abraham Morewski) to sort things out. The ethereal nature of The Dybbuk is given added poignancy when one is aware that the lifestyle recorded in the film would be all but wiped from the face of the earth by the Nazis, and many of the actors seen in the film would soon fall victim to Hitler's "Final Solution."