Mordecai Richler: The Last of the Wild Jews

The Last of the Wild Jews is a documentary film for television that looks at Mordecai Richler, the man and the author, from a new perspective.  It fixes him in the context of a particular North American Jewish identity, one that emerged from the immigrant ‘ghettos’ of Montreal, New York and Chicago in the 1930s and 40s and burst onto the literary and cultural scene in the 1950s and 60s. 

These were the self-declared ‘wild Jews,’ raised on comic-book superheroes and Holocaust vibrations, Talmud teachings and golem tales, along with the galvanizing short stories of Isaac Babel about the vanished Odessa Jewish underworld.  

‘When a Jew rides a horse,’ Babel wrote of his characters,  ‘he stops being a Jew.

The Last of the Wild Jews will inspire and amuse as it offers its viewers new insight into one of Canada's most celebrated writers.

Production Company
Motsjo Inc.

Website
http://www.bravo.ca/events/GreatCanadianBios/documentaries.asp

Broadcaster
Bravo!

Funding Program
Broadcaster Performance Envelope