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Village of Idiots

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Village of Idiots
Directed byEugene Fedorenko
Rose Newlove
Written byJohn Lazarus
Produced byJohn Spotton
John Taylor
Dennis Murphy
Gerry Flahive
Barrie Angus McLean
David Verrall
Narrated byNicholas Rice
Distributed byNational Film Board of Canada
Release date
  • 1999 (1999)
Running time
13 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Village of Idiots is a short animated comedy based on the classic humorous Jewish folk tales about the Wise Men of Chełm, directed and animated by Eugene Fedorenko and Rose Newlove, written by John Lazarus, and produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).[1] Fedorenko is the Academy Award-winning animator of the 1979 NFB short Every Child. In 1999, it was one of four films in the 1st Annual Animation Show of Shows.

Summary

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“Outsiders call Chełm the village of idiots," Shmendrick explains, "but our rabbi said we were a city of natural geniuses, with our own way of figuring things out.”

With muted, mesmerizing illustrations and heavy accordion-based music, the film follows Shmendrick as he sets out on a journey away from home for the first time. But along his journey from Chełm to Warsaw, He decides to have a rest. He then eats some food that he brought with him and then has a sleep. Afterwards, Shmendrick awakens and continues his journey. But as he travels, he comes upon a city that is eerily similar to the one he left behind. The rest of us might think Shmendrik just took a wrong turn and ended up back home, but for Shmendrik, this discovery sheds light on holy teachings: “the Talmud tells us that the world is everywhere the same," he recalls.

The above turn of the plot is a retelling of the short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw.

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ "Village of Idiots". National Film Board of Canada Web site. Retrieved 1 June 2009.
  2. ^ Palmarès 2000, fiche film
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