Schund! (2010)

Overview

A clever and heartfelt mockumentary "introduces" a renowned Yiddish actor who disappeared under criminal circumstances. Left in his wake are debts, rumors, and a mysterious inscription on the door of his home reading "schund." The film's action takes place twenty-five years after the actor's disappearance in an effort to pick up his trail. Along the way, we meet the colorful (real) characters who made up Israel's vibrant Yiddish scene during the country's first decades. This was a period when Yiddish theater thrived even as it drew ire from an Israeli establishment bent on suppressing the threat Yiddish's popularity posed to the primacy of Hebrew culture.