Yentl

Yentl is a 1983 American romantic musical drama film directed, co-written, co-produced by, and starring American entertainer Barbra Streisand. It is based on Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy". The film incorporates music to tell the story of an Ashkenazi Jewish girl in Poland who decides to dress and live like a boy so that she can receive an education in Talmudic law after her father dies. The film's musical score and songs, composed by Michel Legrand, with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, include the songs "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" and "The Way He Makes Me Feel", both sung by Streisand. The film received the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy and Best Director for Streisand, making her the first woman to win Best Director at the Golden Globes. Plot Yentl is a woman living in an Ashkenazi shtetl named Pechev in Poland in 1904. Yentl's father, Reb Mendel (“Papa”) (Nehemiah Persoff), secretly instructs her in the Talmud despite the proscription of such study by women according to the custom of her community. Yentl refuses to be married off to a man. After the death of her father, Yentl decides to cut her hair short, dress like a man, take her late brother's name, Anshel, and enter a Yeshiva, a Jewish religious school in Bychawa. There she befriends a fellow student, Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin), and meets his fiancée, Hadass (Amy Irving). Upon discovering that Avigdor lied about his brother's death (a suicide, not consumption as Avigdor claimed), Hadass' family cancels the wedding over fears that Avigdor's family is tainted with insanity. Hadass' parents decide that she should marry Anshel instead, and Avigdor encourages Anshel to go ahead with the marriage, so Hadass can marry someone she knows rather than have a stranger for a husband. Anshel marries Hadass—to avoid Avigdor fleeing town—but, their marriage remains unconsummated, Anshel claiming it is a sin for a woman to give herself to a man while she loves another. Anshel starts to teach Hadass the Talmud. Meanwhile, Hadass develops romantic feelings for Yentl (as Anshel), while Yentl herself is falling in love with Avigdor.