Benya Krik

SCREENINGS

Vienna Jewish Film Festival (2010)
Jewish Museum of London with live music by Robin Harris (2010)
Harrogate International Festival with live music (2010)
South Bank Centre, London with live music (2009)
Musee d’art et d’histoire du Judaisme, Paris with live music (2009)
Filmhaus Nürnberg; Nuremberg, Germany (2009)
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (2008)
Ashkenaz Festival, Toronto (2008)
Maine Jewish Film Festival (2001)
New York Jewish Film Festival (1997)
Pacific Film Archive (1995)

The seamy Jewish underworld of Odessa is the setting for Isaac Babel's story based on the life of gangster king Mishka Yaponchik ("Mike the Jap") Vinnitsky. Murder is a way of life for Benya Krik and his gang. They profit from their criminal activities until the Russian Revolution and the local commissar assigns them "emergency revictualing patrol," making them a "revolutionary" regiment, complete with tattooed red stars. But this new post backfires for Benya as he finds himself ensnared in a Bolshevik trap.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

" [Benya Krik] not only presented its swaggering hero as the victim of the Bolshevik regime but risked accusations of anti-Semitism by Jews as criminal profiteers... Opening in Kiev in early 1927, Benya Krik was almost immediately banned by the Ukrainian office for political education."
- J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

PURCHASE DVD

HOME USE ONLY
$36.00 plus shipping
Home Use Only DVD (Not for Classroom/Institutional Use)

Does not include Public Performance Rights
Home Use Policy (pdf)

INSTITUTIONAL USE

$72.00 plus shipping
Classroom/Institutional Use Only DVD

Does not include Public Performance Rights
Institutional Use Policy (pdf)