Broken Barriers

Broken Barriers

76 mins | Drama | Jan. 1, 1919

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.

Broken Barriers

76 mins | Drama | Jan. 1, 1919

Broken Barriers
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.
Producers Zion Films
Original title Khava
Directors Charles E. Davenport
Writers Nat Dorfman, Sholom Aleichem

Cast

Alice Hastings

as Khavah

Giacomo Masuroff

as Tobias, Khavah's Father

Billie Wilson

as Khavah's Mother

Sonia Radin

as Parasha, Fedka's Mother

Anna Kay

as Khavah's Sister

Raymond Friedgen

as Fedka's Chum