- 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 Title
- Beni͡a Krik
Isaac Babel's classic story 'Benya Krik'
- Format
- Video
- Published
- Waltham, MA : National Center for Jewish Film [distributor], [1996]
©1996
- Locale
- Ukraine
Odesa
Odesa (Ukraine)
- Other Authors/Editors
- Vilner, Vladimir.
Babelʹ, I. (Isaak), 1894-1940.
Liarov, M.
Shumskiĭ, I͡U.
Goricheva, A.
Babnik, A.
VUFKU (Firm)
National Center for Jewish Film.
- Notes
-
Originally released as a motion picture in 1926.
Camera, A. Kaluzhnyi.
M. Liarov, IU. Shumskii, A. Goricheva, A. Babnik.
DVD; NTSC; all regions.
Silent with English intertitles.
