SHTTL

<p><img alt="Laurel icon denoting the film is in competition for a Jury Prize." border="0" src="https://data.ajff.org/sites/default/files/2023-01/laurel_2023_JuryPrize_01.png" style="width:20%; max-width:20%; margin-left:10px; float:right;" />In this hypnotic Yiddish-language drama, a Jewish-Ukrainian shtetl on the precipice of disaster wrestles with festering tensions between tradition and modernity. After leaving his insular community to pursue a secular life as a filmmaker in Kyiv, Mendele (Moshe Lobel), returns to reunite with the woman he loves. Debates and ruminations on politics, romance and faith ensue, just before Nazi troops will bring death and destruction to the distracted denizens. Writer-director Ady Walter plunges audiences into the bustling village life, filming in one propulsive, unbroken shot, and alternating between monochrome and color. The fictional acre-sized shtetl set was meticulously constructed outside Kyiv, the missing “e” in the film’s title signifying the vacuum left by a vanished world.</p>