JIFF 2018: Black Honey, The Life and Poetry of Avraham Sutskever

The Story

“If I didn’t write, I wouldn’t live. When I was in the Vilna ghetto, I believed, as an observant Jew believes in the Messiah, that as long as I was writing, was able to be a poet, I would have a weapon against death.” — Abraham Sutskever

As long as Abraham Sutskever lived, he wouldn't let a film about his life be made. Today, eight years after his passing, Black Honey tells the incredible story of the greatest Yiddish poet of modern times. The man who led the Paper Brigade underground movement that saved Jewish manuscripts from the Nazis, survived the WWII due to Stalin sending him a private rescue plane, testified in the Nuremberg Trials, and immigrated to Israel in 1947 where he led Yiddish culture, while writing in astonishing vitality.

Rating

CTC

Country

IL

Language

Yiddish, Hebrew

Director

Uri Barbash