Hester Street

1975

Action / Drama / Romance

5
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 81% · 31 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 69% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.0/10 10 2472 2.5K

manhattan, new york city woman director russian emigre 19th century

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Plot summary

A Russian emigre prides himself on the way he's molded himself into a real Yankee in the USA, though the world he lives in, New York's Lower East Side in the late 19th century, is almost exclusively populated by other Jewish immigrants. When his wife finally arrives in the New World, however, she has a lot of assimilating to do.

Director

Joan Micklin Silver Photo
Joan Micklin Silver

Top cast

Joanna Merlin Photo
Joanna Merlin as Jake's Landlady
Philip Sterling Photo
Philip Sterling as Mr. Lipman
Steven Keats Photo
Steven Keats as Jake
Lin Shaye Photo
Lin Shaye as Whore
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
699.04 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
PG
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 29 min
Seeds ...
1.24 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
PG
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 29 min
Seeds 12

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by CinemaSerf 7 / 10

There are a couple of really quite poignant

There are a couple of really quite poignant performances here from "Jake" (Steven Keats) and his wife "Gitl" (Carol Kane) as together with their young son they try to make a new life in New York after fleeing from Russia. He had arrived some time earlier and had already become exposed to some of the more libertarian aspects of American society by the time his family arrived and though he manages to adopt the ways of their new society more readily, she does not. Indeed, his enthusiasm to fit in, and to have his son - now called "Joey" to do likewise begins to pit him against his strongly Jewish community and against a wife with whom he no longer connects. It's essentially a film about integration and of profound clashes of culture. The old having to give way to the new. Sometimes subtly, sometimes more brutally - and with "Gitl" being a woman, this struggle was only exacerbated by her social position as someone largely dependant on his husband for support. As this position becomes increasingly untenable for all, the story becomes alive with a tension that's born out of something nobody had had much of previously - opportunity. The drama is well delivered by both Keats and Kane illustrating just how easily the glue of something strong can dissolve when something intangibly tantalising comes along. In this case, "Mamie" (Dorrie Kavanaugh) epitomises the lively and bright alternative to the dreariness of his daily life. It's an observation, really - an episode in their lives that at times hits home but at others is akin to a Chaplin film mixed with a few episodes of "Upstairs Downstairs" - only with out the riches or glamour. It's hard to see it working as a film for the cinema, but it is a characterful study worth a watch.
Reviewed by

Reviewed by lee_eisenberg 10 / 10

Joan Micklin Silver, RIP

Joan Micklin Silver died last week, so I decided to watch her directorial debut. "Hester Street" is based on Abraham Cahan's "Yekl", about Jewish immigrants in 1890s New York. The studios were convinced that audiences wouldn't be interested in a movie featuring a lot of Yiddish. Well, the movie is a fine piece of work. Both a look at the traditions and the hardships that the immigrants faced upon arriving in the US, it's very much a movie that tests your attention span; the polar opposite of a Michael Bay movie.

Steven Keats plays the lead role. His character has lived in New York for a few years until he can make enough money to bring his wife over. In that time, he's made efforts to assimilate into US society. His wife doesn't feel so comfortable doing so. The only other recognizable cast members are Carol Kane (known for plenty of roles, most recently as the landlady on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"), Doris Roberts (of "Everybody Loves Raymond") and Lin Shaye (the sunburned neighbor in "There's Something About Mary" and the retiring flight attendant in "Snakes on a Plane").

All in all, it's an outstanding film. Anyone interested in the history of the Jews in the United States would do well to watch it.

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