Series/Themes: Jewish and Israeli Series, Music, Political and Social Issues

Genre: Drama, International

Film Year: 1918

Locations: Germany

Film Length: 58 min.

Director: Victor Janson, Eugen Illés

Featuring: Pola Negri, Harry Liedtke, Victor Janson, Adolf Edgar Licho, Werner Bernhardy.

This silent film tells the story of Lea, a young girl living in the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw with hopes of studying medicine at a university in Russia. When her father dies, she moves to St. Petersburg to pursue her dream, but must assume the identity of her tutor’s deceased sister in order to be accepted to the university. Lea attends school during the day, but spends her nights working as a prostitute until a fellow student discovers her secret. Esteemed Klezmer musicians Alicia Svigals, Marilyn Lerner, and UVA faculty member Joel Rubin will accompany the screening with a live performance of a score written by Svigals, which was commissioned by the Foundation for Jewish Culture’s 2013 New Jewish Music Network. Live musical accompaniment by violinist-composer Alicia Svigals, pianist Marilyn Lerner, and clarinetist Joel Rubin (UVA) 

Supported by the UVA McIntire Department of Music, UVA Jewish Studies Program, Congregation Beth Israel, the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, and the UVA Program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality