Messiah
or a Town and a Half
Drohobych, the place where Bruno Schultz was born used to be called “a town and a half”.
Half of the town folks were Jews, half were Poles, and the other half Ukrainians.
Now Drohobych that was part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire, then Poland, then Nazi occupied Ukraine is a small provincial town in Galicia, Ukraine. The first two “halves” are long gone – Jews exterminated, Poles deported to Poland.
The town that inspired “The Cinnamon Shops” has not changed a lot, just all the mansions and cobblestoned roads from the bygone have deteriorated.
They still mine salt in Drohobych, very much like six hundred years ago. And they celebrate the life and genius of Bruno Schultz during a biannual “Bruno Schultz festival”.
Credits
Conceived and directed by Andrei Zagdansky
Cameramen Vladimir Guyevsky
Producer Gennady Kofman
with partial financial support of
Ukrainian Cultural Fund
© 2019 -2021 AZ Films llc/MaGiKa Film
D/P Vladimir Guyevsky, director Andrei Zagdansky