Yentl

As only men are allowed to attend Talmudic school, Yentl (Barbra Streisand) disguises herself as a man. A devastatingly generous and beautiful balancing act between the melodramatic and the comedic, the shy and the sensual, the critical and the respectful – in all, a deeply democratic and enlightening masterpiece!

“Yentl – you have the soul of a man.” / “So why was I born a woman?” / “Even Heaven makes mistakes.”

This brief exchange early in Isaac Bashevis Singer’s 1962 short story Yentl the Yeshiva Boy nails many of the questions posed by Barbra Streisand in her extraordinary directorial debut, a soft-spoken yet clearly argued essay on choice – in all matters. Gender was always at the forefront of these discussions, with a formidable Streisand playing a woman (Yentl) who plays a man (Anshel). But access to education is an equally important concern of the film, as Yentl’s greatest wish is to enter Talmudic school. 

Taking a few casual hints from Abraham Goldfaden 1880 classic of the Yiddishe stage, Di tsvey Kuni-Lemels, Yentl is a devastatingly generous and beautiful balancing act between the melodramatic and the comedic, the shy and the sensual, the critical and the respectful, the realistic and the pop-campy. In all, a deeply democratic and enlightening work, and arguably one of the greatest films of the 1980s!

– Olaf Möller

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