This 1919 silent is the first American film based on the same Sholem Aleichem stories as Fiddler on the Roof, but produced 50 years before the blockbuster musical. Unlike most adaptations of Aleichem’s work, Broken Barriers (Khavah) focuses not on Tevye the milkman, but on his daughter Khavah, who falls in love with the gentile boy Fedka and must navigate the reverberations from this with both her community and her family.
Sholom Aleichem
Writer
Charles E. Davenport
Director
Alice Hastings
Khavah
Alexander Tenenholtz
Fedka
Giacomo Masuroff
Tobias, Khavah's Father
Billie Wilson
Khavah's Mother
Sonia Radin
Parasha, Fedka's Mother
Phil Sanford
Ivan, Fedka's Father
Anna Kay
Khavah's Sister
Raymond Friedgen
Fedka's Chum
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