Klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and American pianist Donald Sosin conclude their Northern Silents residency with a remarkable film - found in Paris flea market in 2015 after being lost since the 1930s.
The film
Set in the Vienna-like city of Utopia, The City Without Jews follows the political and personal consequences of an anti-Semitic law to expel the city’s Jews. Pushed onto trains with whatever belongings they could carry, forced against their will into an uncertain future, these scenes seem eerily prescient today.
The film had its final screening in Amsterdam in 1933, as a protest against the Nazis - after which it was thought that every copy had been destroyed. Miraculously, in 2015 a complete print of the film was discovered in a Paris flea market. Beautifully restored by Filmarchiv Austria - and almost exactly a century after its Vienna premiere - this disturbing and unique film now has its first screening in Manchester.
The music
Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin have been bringing audiences to their feet throughout the U.S. and Europe with their unique and stirring violin and piano scores for Jewish-themed silent films. Sosin is one of the world’s finest silent film musicians; Svigals is the world's leading klezmer violinist and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics.
Post show discussion
Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin will join Manchester Jewish Museum curator Josh Jones and Northern Silents Artistic Director Jonny Best for a 30-minute discussion and Q&A immediately following the film.
Music: Alicia Svigals (violin), Donald Sosin (piano)
Director: HK Breslauer
Year: 1924
Country: Austria
Length: 91 mins
With thanks to Filmarchiv Austria
Funding support provided by The Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts.
