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Benya Krik
Title
Benya Krik [videorecording] / produced by Film Studio One, VUFKU ; script by Isaac Babelʹ ; directed by V. Vilner.
ISBN
1585871893
9781585871896
Published
Waltham, MA : National Center for Jewish Film [distributor], c1996.
Physical Description
1 videodisc (90 min.) : si., b&w ; 4 3/4 in.
Notes
Originally released as a motion picture in 1926.
Camera, A. Kaluzhnyi.
Silent with English intertitles.
Summary
The seamy Jewish underworld of Odessa is the setting for Isaac Babel's story based on the life of gangster king Mishka Yaponchik ("Mike the Jap") Vinnitsky. Murder is a way of life for Benya and his gang. They profit from their criminal activities until the Russian Revolution and the local commissar assigns them "emergency revictualing patrol," making them a "revolutionary" regiment, complete with tattooed red stars. But this new post backfires for Benya as he finds himself ensnared in a Bolshevik trap.
"[Benya Krik] not only presented its swaggering hero as the victim of the Bolshevik regime but risked accusations of anti-Semitism by Jews as criminal profiteers... Opening in Kiev in early 1927, Benya Krik was almost immediately banned by the Ukrainian office for political education" - -J. Hoberman, 'Village Voice'.
Variant and related titles
Beni︠a︡ Krik
Title on container: Isaac Babel's classic story 'Benya Krik'
Format
Images / Video & Film
Language
English
Added to Catalog
August 07, 2008
Credits
Camera, A. Kaluzhnyi.
Cast
M. Liarov, IU. Shumskii, A. Goricheva, A. Babnik.
System details note
DVD; NTSC; all regions.
Subjects
Genre/Form
Feature films.
Silent films.
Also listed under
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Citation
