Weergevonden

This is a powerful naturalistic drama well directed by Chrispijn and extremely ell performed by himself as the blind Jewish father and by Enny De Leeuwe as his younger daughter Lea. The elder daughter, Dora (Mientje Kling) falls in love with the young non-Jewish doctor who has saved her father's life. The father, a very orthodox Jew, disowns her but as her work as a milliner is virtually the sole support of the family (father and younger sister), they decline into severe poverty. Evicted, they are helped by a countrywoman (Annie Bos in a tiny part) but drift back to the town where they are reduced to beggary. It is a similar story in reverse to Griffith's 1908 short Romance of a Jewess (where the eloping couple are reduced to poverty). After a riverside accident, Lea catches pneumonia......

There is some fine location cinematography (by H. W. Metman. In the early 1910s with Mauritz Binger (here the producer), Louis Chrispijn, Theo Frenkel (father and son) and actors of the calibre of Chrispijn, the Bouwmeester family and Annie Bos, the Dutch cinema was a match for any in the world and we are very fortunate that the EYE institute has brought so many Dutch films of this period to light...with more, one hopes, still to come.