This marvelously atmospheric, eerietale of unfulfilled love and mysticism is a classic of Yiddish cinema, adapted from the celebrated play by S.Ansky. The new print, reconstructed by the National Center for Jewish Film from negatives and nitrateprints found in archives around the world, had its world premiere this summer at the Venice Film Festival.In The Dybbuk, as in mysticism and love, the past has a magnetic pull on the present, and the dead are asalluring as the living. Two expectant fathers betroth their newborns to one another. When the grownchildren, Khonnon (Leon Liebgold) and Leah (Lili Liliana) meet, knowing nothing of the vows, Khonnonbecomes obsessed with Leah and begins to dabble in the kabbala. Leah, meanwhile, is betrothed by heravaricious father to a wealthy man; while the townsmen dance in celebration, Khonnon offers Leah his body,soul and intelligence-via Satan-and dies. When Leah's father invites the spirit of her dead mother to thewedding, Leah invites Khonnon from the grave... The film is filled with haunting, unforgettable scenes whichverge on the surreal, the most famous of which is the ritual costume dance during which Leah seesKhonnon's face in that of Death (played by the choreographer Judith Berg) and embraces him. The film'sstyle links Jewish mysticism with expressionism-as in Nosferatu, or more precisely Dreyer's Vampyr,man is an insubstantial presence in the cinematic ether (the "messenger" who enters and exits deux exmachina throughout the film, warning people of their fates, is foreshadowing personified). Ansky's play waswritten during the turbulent years of 1912-1917, Waszynski's 1937 film made during another period ofpre-war unease. Shot on location in rural Poland, The Dybbuk captures a rich folk heritage lost both to theHolocaust and to modern times.