MOBILE RED HEDGEHOG - Flipbook - Page 23
Director’s note
Both of us, the directors of the film, are
grandchildren of Jewish immigrants. We grew up
hearing stories from our grandparents that spoke
of a Judaism that was nothing like the one we
knew. At first, it seemed to us that those stories
were simply a romanticisation of the past. But
when we began the research for this
documentary about klezmer music, we
discovered that there was something more.
We knew from the first moment that we had to
film in Ukraine, because historically it is a territory
that was inhabited by Jews, where they developed
their culture and traditions for years.
What is klezmer music?
Klezmer was born within the Yiddish culture, a
culture that disappeared firstly due to the
Holocaust and secondly because the new ‘Jewish
identity’ that was sought with the creation of the
State of Israel did not have a place for that
culture. Klezmer music is the instrumental music
of Yiddish culture, that was mainly used in Jewish
weddings in Eastern Europe. Although it comes
from a specific culture marked by religion,
klezmer is the pagan music of this culture;
therefore, it is never heard in religious situations.
