Yentl

A musical drama set in eastern Europe. Yentl is a rabbi's daughter. Her father teaches her the Talmud in secret because women are forbidden to study religious texts. The father dies. If she stays in the village she will be married off and her studying will end. She cuts her hair. She dresses as a man, takes the name Anshel, and enrols at a religious school. At the school she is paired with Avigdor. They study together, argue, become friends, and Yentl falls in love with him. Avigdor is engaged. For a particular reason the family breaks it off and he loses Hadass. Then he finds a strange solution. He wants his friend to marry the girl. Yentl agrees. From there the film is a story of an impossible marriage. A house, a night, a book and a truth that keeps being postponed. What the narrative is interested in is not love but the right to learn: every risk Yentl takes is not to be a man but to go on studying. Hadass's line is unexpected. She changes when her husband teaches her to read, and the film does not use her as an obstacle. The songs belong only to Yentl. Nobody else sings; the numbers work as an interior voice and give what is passing through her. The source is a story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The author disliked the film and wrote his objection openly in a newspaper. Barbra Streisand took it on as producer, director, co-writer and lead; it is counted as the first major Hollywood production in which a woman did all four. The film won the Academy Award for its score. Barbra Streisand, Mandy Patinkin and Amy Irving are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes classical musicals and period drama. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a narrative without songs; the numbers come often and it runs close to two and a half hours.