Hershele

Hershele of Ostropol was a legendary Ukrainian Jewish jester. Here we have a fictitious descendant of his arriving among the immigrants to Israel from the USSR. He appears naive, and his proletarian neighbors dismiss him as a representative of the privileged class, but he learns to stand up against manipulation and champions social equality. All this is played out in comedy and music, although the music is not Dov Seltzer's best and its presentation is hopelessly dated. Mike Burstyn, the lead actor, is one of the world's most talented and accomplished all-around performers, but unfortunately in this film he's called upon to pretend he is a clarinetist and he obviously isn't. The theme of conflict and reconciliation between the social classes was very common in Israeli comedies of the time, and here the grievances are presented quite frankly, so the movie can't be blamed if the happy ending rings a little false. In the end, it's just a pleasant fantasy.