Awards
Argentinian Film Critics Association Awards 2005
Silver Condor, Best Video Film
In August 1889, the steamship Wesser docked in Argentina with the first group of Jewish escapees from the pogroms of Czarist Russia. After first finding work in order to survive first and to progress later, they grouped themselves in colonies, distributed in different provinces - Entre Ríos, Santa Fe, La Pampa, Santiago del Estero and Buenos Aires -, most of them thanks to the initiative of baron Mauricio de Hirsch who facilitated around one hundred hectares to each group.
This, the first Jewish agricultural colonization gave birth to a new way of life that, beyond the questions related to the traditions and faith (or indeed by them), would leave a remarkable imprint on the country of Argentina. The film's Yiddish narrator is Esther, one of the many women who arrived in those very small boats and participated in the foundation of Moisésville, known as "the mother of all the colonies". Her account spans eighty years.
“...a sober and informed documentary”
– Clarín.com.“The documentary uses the camera well, shooting the splendid architecture of the theater of the Kadima Society in Moisés Ville, its old programs, and the echo of the musical subjects that were listened to in his times of splendor when it was occupied by figures like Berta Singerman, or the writers Samuel Eichelbaum and Caesar Tiempo, among others. ”
– Claudius D. Minghetti, La Nacion
The National Center For Jewish Film
Brandeis University, Lown 102, MS053, Waltham MA 02454
P: (781) 899 7044, F: (781) 736 2070
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