Silent film with live music accompaniment by violinist Alicia Svigals (a founding member of the Klezmatics) and renowned pianist Donald Sosin

“A masterwork I hope every community will sponsor. The live music is wonderful, as is the film, bravo! It’s a wonderful unique experience not to be missed. The film is extraordinary and the musical score played live is really a concert in itself.” (audience member Mike Scher, Cleveland)

The Ancient Law, Deutsche Kinemathek’s recent digital restoration, is an enthralling and beautiful film that deals with tensions between tradition and modernity. In an 1860s Galicia shtetl, the teenage son of the community’s rabbi disobeys his father and leaves home to become a Shakespearean actor. As delighted as he is by the world of theater and his success in it, he also longs for home and a way to reconcile his religious heritage with his love of secular literature.

The new score for this silent film will be performed by its composers: Alicia Svigals, one of the world’s leading klezmer violinists and a founder of the Klezmatics and pianist Donald Sosin, who since 1971 has performed his silent film music at Lincoln Center, MoMA, the Kennedy Center, and major film festivals in the US and abroad. Funding for this special event was provided by Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts.