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The movie Land of Promise,
filmed in 1933, was the first movie produced by influential
filmmaker Margot Klausner, and her second husband Yeoshua
Brandstatter. Klausner studied Theater and Art History in
Berlin before moving to Palestine in 1926. Together with her
husband, she was instrumental in bringing the Habimah
Theater from Moscow to Palestine on its first tour in 1927,
and from 1932 until 1936 served as part of the management of
the theater after it settled in Palestine. In 1933, the
couple established Urim, a film production company. Its
first movie, Land of Promise, was one of the most
important documentaries of the Zionist period.
It was
made as a propaganda documentary for "Keren Hayesod" – the
settling arm of the Zionist movement – to encourage Jews to
settle in Palestine. The 80-minute movie received critical
acclaim and won an award at the Venice Film Festival in
1935. When it was first screened in New York, the New
York Times published a praiseful review:
"If further proof be needed of
the motion picture camera's ability to record history more
vividly than any printed page, it may be found at the Astor
Theatre in the handsomely fabricated form of The Land of
Promise, which had its first American screening last
night before an enthusiastic and attentive audience. A
mobile, excellently photographed, and skillfully edited film
record of the rebuilding of the Jewish homeland in
Palestine, the picture merits an audience beyond the generic
limits of its theme." (NY Times, November 21, 1935)
The production used no
professional actors, nor did it have any real plotline:
Director Juda Leman simply recorded the day-to-day existence
of European Jewish refugees who had immigrated to Palestine
in 1933. The narration, by David Ross, is spoken in English,
but a Yiddish-language version was simultaneously recorded.
It was screened in Nazi Germany, and only shown to Jews in
order to encourage them to leave the country and immigrate
to Palestine.
There are three songs in the
movie written by Nathan Altermann and composed by Daniel
Sambursky (who is seen to be playing the piano in one of the
scenes), to include the famous "Valley Song" – which has
since had many additional recordings and is to this day a
popular Israeli folk song. |
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