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  • Bitter Herbs and Honey (1996)
  • 70 min | Documentary
Primary photo for Bitter Herbs and Honey
Bitter Herbs and Honey (1996)
70 min | Documentary
Bitter Herbs and Honey tells a richly textured story of the making of multi-cultural Australia. Through the saga of the the story of the Jewish migrants, mainly from Eastern Europe, who made their first home in Melbourne's inner-city ...See moreBitter Herbs and Honey tells a richly textured story of the making of multi-cultural Australia. Through the saga of the the story of the Jewish migrants, mainly from Eastern Europe, who made their first home in Melbourne's inner-city suburb of Carlton, the film explores issues at the heart of Australia's development towards cultural diversity. The film builds a picture of poor immigrants who left Europe in the period of turmoil preceding, and in the wake of, the Second World War, having lost everything spiritually and materially. In a country most had never heard of on the other side of the earth, they began to rebuild their lives. Refusing to join the cultural melting pot, the Carlton Jews chose instead to keep their own language, religion, culture and traditions alive, whilst integrating into their adopted country.There was conflict and struggle between the new Eastern European arrivals, with their visible Jewish identity, and the established German/Anglo-Jewish community that had lived in the affluent suburbs south of the Yarra for generations and saw itself primarily as British, then Australian, and lastly as Jewish. Bitter Herbs and Honey is a story of struggle between the old and the new, the powerful and the weak, identity and assimilation. This struggle continued until the sheer strength of numbers of the new arrivals broke down the barriers between the two groups and the inevitable process of integration occurred. Written by National Center for Jewish Film See less
Read more: Plot summary
Director
Monique Schwarz
Producer
Monique Schwarz
Composer
Martin Friedel
Cinematographer
László Baranyai
Editor
Uri Mizrahi
Production Designer
Sarah Stollman
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Status
Edit Released
Updated Jul 18, 1996
Release date
1996 (United States)

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4 cast members
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