A Brivele der mamen (1938)

The film is set in a small town in Galicia during the First World War. The Berdichevsky family lives in the town. Father David sings well and enjoys composing, but he is a good-for-nothing and cannot support his family. All the responsibility for providing for them falls to the hard-working mother, Deborah, who runs a fashion shop but can never pay her bills on time. The eldest son, Meir, dreams of becoming an engineer or a dentist. Their daughter Miriam is seeing a dance instructor, against her parents’ wishes, since she is engaged to Yudka, the son of Shimon the tailor. Deborah and David’s greatest pride is their youngest son, Aronchik, who is very talented and musical. Without telling his wife, and after borrowing money from Shimon, David goes to America to work, where he earns his living selling socks. Miriam also leaves home and goes away with her dance instructor, which her mother tries to hide from the neighbors. David sends his son Aronchik a ticket so that he, too, can come to America. Meanwhile, Miriam returns to town, since it turns out that the dance instructor is already married and has a child. At her mother’s urging, Miriam conceals these facts from Yudka, and the young couple marry as planned and go to Russia. In 1914, when the war begins, Meir is called to the front. On the day the war ends, Deborah learns that her eldest son has died at the front. Although no letters have arrived from America for some time, Deborah tries to find her husband and Aronchik. Eventually, she travels to America through a relief organization, where she attends a concert and discovers that her youngest son has become a famous singer and now uses the stage name Arnold Bird. The famous song “A brivele der mamen,” which Elstein wrote especially for the film, is the film’s leitmotif. In the film’s final scene, as Arnold Bird sings the song, Abram Elshtein himself appears onscreen as the orchestra’s conductor in a cameo role.