"?arguably the most artful and shameless ofYiddish weepies." (J. Hoberman) "Set in the Ukraine beforeWorld War I and in New York afterwards, this was one of the last filmsmade in Poland before the Nazi invasion. Its tale of loss, familydisintegration and poverty serves director Joseph Green as a metaphorfor the displacements and difficulties facing European Jews in 1939.Lucy Gehrman's performance as the storekeeper-mother, whose heroicattention to the everyday eventuall rewards her travails, stands out,as do Max Bozyk and Chane Levin's comic interludes." (NationalCenter for Jewish Film)