Green Fields is a 1937

1937 in film

The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....

 American

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 comedy-drama

Comedy-drama

Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

 directed by Jacob Ben-Ami and Edgar G. Ulmer and written by Peretz Hirschbein. A film adaptation

Film adaptation

Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...

 of Hirschbein's 1916 play of the same name, the low-budget movie was filmed in New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. The National Center of Jewish Cinema has praised Green Fields saying that the film "heralded the Golden Age of Yiddish cinema."

Plot

Levy Yitzchok (Michael Goldstein), an orphaned student, leaves his yeshiva

Yeshiva

Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...

 to search for "true Jews". He meets a family of Jewish peasants living on a farm in the shtetl

Shtetl

A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...

. The family accept him as a boarder

Boarder

A boarder may be a person who:*snowboards*skateboards*bodyboards*surfs*stays at a boarding house*attends a boarding school*takes part in a boarding attackThe term may also refer to*The Boarder...

, and Yitzchok tutors their children.

Reception and screenings

According to the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

, the film is told in a "leisurely fashion". J. Hoberman wrote that the film was "sunlit and air-filled, yet suffused with yearning". In 1938, the moviegoers who watched Green Fields in the Warner Grand Theatre

Warner Grand Theatre

The Warner Grand Theatre is an historic movie palace which was opened on January 20, 1931. It is located in San Pedro, California, at 478 West 6th Street in the United States of America....

 would not leave the movie theater

Movie theater

A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

 until "the last foot of film was unreeled". The film received rave reviews and was a financial success.

In 1938, Green Fields won the "Best Foreign Award" in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

In 2000, Jane Sumner of The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...

praised the film for being a "slow but charming celebration of Jewish village life in Eastern Europe before the turn of 20th century".

Green Fields has been shown at a number of film festival

Film festival

A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...

s and screenings. In 2004, it was shown at the Rhode Island International Film Festival

Rhode Island International Film Festival

Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. Started in 1997, the Festival is produced by Flickers, the Newport Film/Video Society & Arts Collaborative, a 501 non-profit...

, Museum of Jewish Heritage

Museum of Jewish Heritage

The Museum of Jewish Heritage, located in lower Manhattan, is a living memorial to those who perished in the Holocaust. The Museum honors those who died by celebrating their lives – cherishing the traditions that they embraced, examining their achievements and faith, and affirming the vibrant...

. In 2005, it was screened at the Haifa Jewish Film Festival and Toronto Jewish Film Festival.