Click image for trailer.

THE ANCIENT LAW
A Silent Film with World-Class, Live Klezmer Musical Accompaniment

Sunday, September 12
5:30 PM

Boise State University Special Events Center
Student Union Building
1700 W University Dr, Boise, ID 83706

The Ancient Law (Das alte Gesetz) is a restored silent film masterpiece from Germany with live music composed and performed by world-famous klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals (co-founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics) and pianist Donald Sosin, a silent film music legend.

The 1923 feature by renowned German Jewish director E.A. Dupont, is an engaging historical drama on a serious theme told with wit, feeling and pageantry about a rabbi’s son who leaves the shtetl to seek his fortune on the stage in Vienna. Unlike Dupont’s more famous Varieté and Piccadilly, The Ancient Law has rarely been seen in public before its restoration that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2018. It is a lavishly produced spectacle with a cast of some of the finest actors of the Weimar era.

Audiences around the US and in Europe, where Alicia and Donald have taken the film concert on tour, have responded with standing ovations. More than 50 performances since 2018 include New York Jewish Film Festival, sold out, GCM: Silent Film Festival in Pordenone, Italy, 500+ people.

Boise is fortunate to have this opportunity, which gives a glimpse - and an opportunity for dialogue - into films of that era, into the impression of Jews and Judaism in their own eyes and in the eyes of their neighbors, and the challenges - and gifts - of retaining tradition in a modern world.

This film screening with live music is sponsored by the Chabad Jewish Center, Boise State University School of the Arts, Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel and the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts.

Entrance is free. On-site parking is $5.

This event is open to the public. Please reply to let us know you are coming. Space is limited.

Please click here to donate and help sponsor this free event.

Masks are required for indoor events at Boise State University.