A film called “In Our Synagogue” and shot in part in the synagogue in Khust, southwest Ukraine, has won the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Best Short Film prize, in the National competition program, at the Odessa International Film Festival.
The 30-minute, black-and-white film, a co-production of Ukraine and France but principally financed by the Ukrainian government, is the debut film of the young Ukrainian filmmaker Ivan Orlenko and is based on an unfinished story by Franz Kafka by the same title, about a mysterious animal that lives in a synagogue. It was shot entirely in Yiddish.
In an email last year, Orlenko told JHE that he had started the film project in 2016. It was “dedicated to Jewish life in the Carpathian region and it turned out to be the first film in Yiddish, made in Ukraine….As you can see from the [trailer] footage my film is focused on the Jewish heritage both in visual and language sense.”
In an interview with the Kyiv-based journalist Olesya Anastasieva and published in the October/November 2017 issue of The Odessa Review, Olenko spoke about filming on location in the Khust synagogue and other locations in the Zakarpattia region (and elsewhere).
The synagogue itself and several streets are located in the city of Khust in the Zakarpattia region. Two interiors we found in Kyiv, another street is in Mukachevo (there on the horizon you can see the “Palanok” castle as an allusion to the “Castle” of Kafka). Part of the shooting took place in France, in Strasbourg, where we filmed footage in a school and the ritual mikvah.
There were several options for where to shoot the film, because in Ukraine, there are still several remaining authentic synagogues — Shargorod, Bershad, Berdichev. But when I arrived in Khust, I immediately realized that I would only shoot there. The architecture is just incredible, I’m very glad that we were allowed to shoot inside of it. By the way, this is the only pre-war synagogue that never closed down, neither during the war nor after the USSR. This synagogue itself has a very interesting story. I think that I will shoot some more movies there.
Khust is located in western Ukraine, south of Lviv and near the borders with Hungary and Romania.
The Synagogue was built in the mid-19th century with a simple, rural Baroque facade — it in fact, according to the synagogue architecture expert Rudolf Klein in his book Hungarian Synagogues 1782-1918, was built together with a twin synagogue next to it, that was demolished under Soviet rule.
Its interior is noted for impressive ceiling paintings and also Klein writes, because it is one of the most recent examples of a nine-bay synagogue built around a four-pillar central Bimah.
Read the full interview with Olenko
See documentation of the synagogue in Khust, by Center for Jewish Art
Watch a 17 minute video slideshow of the synagogue
9 comments on “Ukraine: “In Our Synagogue” – film shot in the Khust synagogue and based on a Kafka story, wins Odessa Film Festival award”
My roots are also from Chust or some people calls Khust, our grandfather was Reb Yoshua Fish, his father in law was Rabbi Moshe Tetcher, very familiar family of chust, known as helping all people with money and guide in all aspects,
who ever have any bit of info about them (Moshe Tetcher or Yoshua Fish) would be greatly appreciated,
g-d bless.
Thank you for this. My late mother – Sarah Lazarovits – was from Khust. I was lucky enough to visit the town and synagogue in 1993. My grandfather and great grandparents are buried in the cemetery. Every bit of information that helps us keep the family history alive is a treasure. Thank you for making this film.
This article MADE me to go to Khust. I was afraid that I might not get in the synagogue but I managed to. There was a telephone nr. written on the gate, I called and got somebody on the line (I speak some Russian). In an hour the man came to open the synagogue. We have chatted quite a bit. I have learned that this was one of the three synagogues together with Moscow and Riga (and next to a couple of other prayer houses) in the whole USSR, which managed to be in use after the Second World War till present. He has told me that it was also thanks to the local officials who lobbied in Moscow on their behalf. He has also said that the Greek-catholic church, made illegal by the authorities in the fifties, operated underground in the times of communism, also with the knowledge and silent consent of the local authorities. Really remarkable history.
Glad that our article helped open the door!
My vriting in engelich is not the best I em very thenkfull thet I ken se thet my town is not forgeten My name is Franciska Levy born Pickel in Chust 1928 on the same stret and visited the Synagoga often Thenks
Dear Francisca, I have only just stumbled upon yur entry on JewishGen in 2019 and wondered if this was the Pikkel family that lived on Benesova in Chust, comprising Brakha (also known as Biri), born in 1889 to Shmuel and Margaretta Marton in Velatin. Shlomo Josef Pikkel was a member of te Satmar Hassidic group and a follower of the Tettelbaum rabbi.
I have a connection with this family and my story of their connection with the Gluck family is told in my book at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum which can be found online at
https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/bib269204
I am an Engishman, living in Warwick
I am not Franciska ,Mimi,and I don’t know if she has answered you but I believe it is her . My mother is Francisca first cousin , she is 94 , and she is still in touch with Mimi . My mother’s father was Israel Pickel , a brother of Shlomo Josef, who moved to Paris before my mother was born . I have read your book which I found to be fascinating and moving as I have no information on my family before they moved to Paris . I live in the United States where I moved with my late American husband a long time ago . Thank you for your book
I like this article very, very nicely how it was built. A good role model for blog journalism. Now this place is on my list “where to go”.