The Last Klezmer

The Last Klezmer (1994)

Sub-Genres - Biography, Music History, Military & War, Social History  |   Run Time - 84 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Clarke Fountain

Klezmer music is a fusion of gypsy music, Jewish liturgical music, and the typical musical forms of Eastern Europe, including the polka. It is most familiarly performed at Jewish weddings, and had nearly died out by the mid-1990s, when a modest revival of interest began to hold some promise that it might survive. This documentary closely interviews the lively and charming Leopold Kozlowski, a klezmer musician and composer who survived the Nazi's concentration camps and managed to get on with his life and his vocation. Among his many vivid recollections is his tale about playing Lili Marlene over and over again for a group of guards at the camp.

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Keywords

composer, concentration-camp, Judaism, klezmer, music, Nazism, resistance