Der Purimspiler is a 1937 Polish black-and-white Yiddish musical comedy film directed by Joseph Green and Jan Nowina-Przybylski, with music by Nicholas Brodszky. Set in a Galician shtetl

Shtetl

A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...

 before World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, it is rich with itinerant performers and star-crossed

Star-crossed

"Star-crossed" or "star-crossed lovers" is a phrase describing a pair of lovers whose relationship is often thwarted by outside forces. The term encompasses other meanings, but originally means the pairing is being "thwarted by a malign star" or that the stars are working against the relationship...

 lovers. Negotiating the romantic rapids are a lonely jester, a circus performer, and Esther, the shoemaker's daughter, whose poor father tries to marry her into a prominent family. The intrigue climaxes with a Purimspiel (Purim

Purim

Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by Haman, a story recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther .Purim is celebrated annually according to the Hebrew calendar on the 14th...

 play) and its parade of costumes, buffoonery, and music.

Cast

• Miriam Kressyn
  Miriam Kressyn
  Miriam Kressyn , one of the "First Ladies of the Yiddish Theater", acted and sang on stage, film and radio; she wrote plays as well. -Personal life:...
  
   as Esther
• Zygmunt Turkow
  Zygmunt Turkow
  Zygmunt Turkow was a Polish actor, director, playwright and director of Jewish origin from Warsaw, who became famous for roles in the pre-war Jewish films and stage plays in Yiddish. His brother, Jonas Turkow, was also a noted actor and stage manager.Shortly after German invasion of Poland in 1939...
  
   as Getsl
• Hy Jacobson as Dick
• Ajzyk Samberg as Reb Nachum
• Max Bozyk as Reb Zurekh
• Berta Litwina as Tsippe
• Eni Liton as Leah
• Jakob Rajnglas as apprentice shoemaker
• Maks Brin as Szames
• Samuel Landau as Mekhele Zaidman
• Samuel Landau as Fyvel