In a breakout, Academy Award nominated performance, Carol Kane plays Gitl, a Russian Jewish woman who immigrates with her son to New York’s Lower East Side in 1896—trailing her husband Yankel’s arrival several months prior. While Yankel has quickly assimilated, assuming a new name, working in a sweatshop, and openly consorting with an English-speaking lover, Gitl struggles to adjust. This debut feature by writer-director Joan Micklin Silver follows the isolated and besieged Gitl’s journey from mistreated housewife to independent woman, underscoring the divergent challenges for male and female immigrants in turn-of-the-century America, as well as how members of the same family can pursue very different paths toward acclimation.
Paired films discount—purchase a ticket for Yentl alongside Hester Street in the same order for a discount: buy both tickets for $20 total for members and $25 total for nonmembers.
