The Eternal Road

Filmmaker Ron Frank is a first generation American whose German Jewish family comes from Chemnitz, a city that was once home to 3500 Jews. While filming his father and aunt’s return to their hometown, Frank began documenting the restaging there of the epic musical drama, The Eternal Road (Der Weg der Verheissung).

THE ETERNAL ROAD
$39.95
Filmmaker Ron Frank is a first generation American whose German Jewish family comes from Chemnitz, a city that was once home to 3500 Jews. While filming his father and aunt’s return to their hometown, Frank began documenting the restaging there of the epic musical drama, The Eternal Road (Der Weg der Verheissung). This extraordinary pageant was first staged in New York City in 1937. Inspired by Meyer Weisgal, the American Zionist, the opera was written by Franz Werfel, composed by Kurt Weill, and produced by Max Reinhardt. Beginning with the story of Abraham and continuing through Jewish history up until the Nazi’s rise to power, the work was intended to symbolize the threatened condition of the Jews of Germany. Prophetic as it was in foreshadowing the impending doom, it was equally visionary in providing an optimistic ending- namely that the Jewish people will prevail. For more than half a century the work was unheard in its entirety. The Eternal Road has been rekindled, amazingly in the very country whose sorrowful history inspired its creation. "Documentaries about musical productions don't come along every week...Stirring in scenes of the revival, the documentary deftly alternates from the present to the past."-New York Times