New Yiddish Movie "Shttl" Rebuilds a Lost Jewish World
Ady Walter stands out as one of the most daring Jewish directors of recent years. His latest film, Shttl, is a remarkable achievement by any standard.
Filmed in 2021 in Ukraine, Shttl was shot entirely in black and white, in a single continuous take, and performed completely in Yiddish. The production took place amid the height of COVID-19 restrictions and under the looming threat of a Russian invasion. Walter built a life-sized replica of a shtetl from scratch, including homes, a synagogue, and winding dirt roads, to bring the story's setting to life authentically.
For the lead role, Walter cast Moshe Lobel, a newcomer who had never before played a leading part in a feature film. Walter described the project's challenges as a “Jewish ‘Apocalypse Now’” and shared how the filming conditions were extreme, mentioning swampy locations filled with mosquitoes during the shoot.
“The story of the film was a Jewish ‘Apocalypse Now.’ This was a crazy adventure in wild conditions. We even shot in swamps with mosquitoes in Ukraine. With Moshe, I never met him before he came, but we had conversations over the phone where I could trust he was right for it.” — Ady Walter
Walter emphasized the importance of language in telling this story. Despite not coming from a Yiddish-speaking family, he insisted the film be made entirely in Yiddish for the sake of authenticity, even if that choice resulted in fewer commercial opportunities.
“I don’t come from a Yiddish-speaking family. But not doing it in Yiddish wasn’t an option. I wanted to make a film where people spoke Yiddish because it was their language at the time.” — Ady Walter
Summary
Shttl is a bold, authentic cinematic tribute that revives a vanished Jewish world through meticulous detail and a deep commitment to language and culture.