The Golem

The Golem (2018)

An ancient legend reborn

A re-imagining of the old mystical folklore that follows a woman and a tight-knit Jewish community that is besieged by foreign invaders. She conjures a dangerous creature to protect them but it may be more evil than she ever imagined.

Date of release
2018-08-27
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (181)
Runtime
1h 35m
Genres
Horror, Drama
Director
Doron Paz, Yoav Paz

Casting

Interesting facts

The Golem is a 2018 Israeli period supernatural horror film directed by Doron and Yoav Paz, and written by Ariel Cohen. It stars Hani Furstenberg, Ishai Golan, Brynie Furstenberg, and Konstantin Anikienko. The Golem is based on the Jewish legend of the same name, and the film's creators felt that the legend, which they referred to as "the Jewish Frankenstein", had never been properly developed into a film since the 1951 version The Emperor and the Golem. Originally it was intended to retain the original appearance of the title character for the film, "In the beginning, when we just started on the idea for the movie, we tried to tell the story as it is.

Production

The Golem was written by Ariel Cohen and directed by the Paz Brothers. The film marks the Israeli filmmakers third directorial effort, whose previous efforts include Phobidilia (2009), and JeruZalem (2013). The film itself is partially based on Jewish legend of the same name, specifically the legend of the Golem of Prague, which dates back to 1834, and involves the creation of a golem by a rabbi to defend the Jewish ghetto based in Prague, which…

The sons of famed Israeli filmmaker Jonathan Paz, Doron and Yoav grew up with hearing the stories of the golem: "The Golem stories are well known in Israel and we think every kid knows about it in some way or another.... We didn’t grow up in an orthodox house, but this story, about a giant monster who saves the Jews from their enemies – it blew our minds." After the success of their 2013 film JeruZalem, the Paz Brothers wanted their next project…

Israeli-American actress Hani Furstenberg was cast in the film's main role of Hanna. Furstenberg had previously acted in Yossi & Jagger, Campfire, and The Loneliest Planet. The Paz Brothers had originally contacted Furstenberg about starring in the lead role, feeling that she was the right person for the part. However, Furstenberg opted out two hours before the filmmakers were able to meet her to talk about the role.

Principal photography for The Golem commenced in the summer of 2017 near Kyiv, Ukraine, for a month and a half. As the filmmakers later recalled, the majority of the film was shot in an isolated outdoor set, "in the middle of nowhere". The location had previously been used in Russian film and subsequently abandoned for decades before the filmmakers decided to film there.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended