Shehita: Yiddish horror film screening and Q&A with director

A Yiddish-speaking Jewish community in Quebec begins to unravel after a horrific discovery stirs up demons from the past. Tensions rise between a young farm owner, a kosher inspector, and a rabbi who must make a grave decision before the eve of Shabbat closes in.

Dean will also present a scene reading from his new project, a feature-length historical horror drama in Yiddish and German entitled Coal.

Shehita will be introduced by Rebecca Margolis, Professor and Pratt Foundation Chair at Monash University’s Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation and author of The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen (Bloomsbury, 2024).

The event will be moderated by Professor Lily Kahn (HJS) and Dr Riitta Valijarvi (SSEES, PLEJ). A portion of the discussion will be dedicated to the role of cinema in the vitality of minoritised languages and the sociolinguistic situation of Yiddish.