THE BENT TREE
The Bent Tree
4 minutes, 16mm color, 1979
Produced, Directed, Animated, Edited by Sally Heckel“…the viewer is beguiled by the music and the motion…” - Landers Film Reviews
Flowing images of sand animation interpret the symbolic poem, “Afn Veg Shteyt a Boym” (“On the Way Stands a Tree”), written by the beloved Yiddish poet, Itzik Manger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itzik_Manger). Written in the 1930s, the poem immediately went into the Yiddish folk song cannon, even mentioned as being recited by partisans as they were leaving the Warsaw Ghetto. With a lone singing voice and occasional English voice-over, the film tells of a child's yearnings and a mother's responsibility. (There is also a Yiddish-only version).