Golem: The Petrified Garden

The last part of Amos Gitai’s “Golem trilogy” is an allegory of the story of the prophet Daniel and his interpretation of the dream of the great statue – the symbol of the great empire and its demise. In the film, the prophet is replaced by Daniel, an art dealer who, on his usual pilgrimage between Paris, New York and Tel Aviv, learns that he has just inherited a vast collection of Russian modern art. But to get his hands on the paintings, he must make a harrowing journey across impoverished Russia to Birobidzhan, a former Jewish autonomous region in Siberia. The main object of the art collection is a huge clay statue of a golem, which Daniel must assemble…
Golem: Le jardin pétrifié | Drama / comedy | France / Israel / Russia / 1993 / 84 min. | Directed by Amos Gitai | Starring Jerome Koenig and Hanna Shygulla