Travelling Light

Synopsis

In a remote village in Eastern Europe, around 1900, the young Motl Mendl is entranced by the flickering silent images on his father's cinematograph. Bankrolled by Jacob, the ebullient local timber merchant, and inspired by Anna, the girl sent to help him make moving pictures of their village, he stumbles on a revolutionary way of story-telling. Forty years on, Motl - now a famed American film director - looks back on his early life and confronts the cost of fulfilling his dreams..

Our Review:

14 March 2012

The Lowry theatre welcomes The National Theatre’s delightful production of Nicholas Hytner’s Travelling Light which combines stories from a largely Jewish shetetl (village) with the dawn of the motion picture.

Upon the death of his father, Motl Mendl (Damien Molony) returns to the village of his birth and discovers he has inherited a Lumiere Cinematograph and begins making motion pictures of the quiet village and its inhabitants. One local resident in particular, timber mill owner Jacob Bindel (Anthony Sher) is mesmerised by this art from and finances Mendel’s first feature length drama. 

As well as providing the funds Bindel also provides a female assistant, Anna ([Lauren O’Neill]) who is a true beauty on and off the screen as well as a skilled assistant with a passion for film making. As the project progresses Bindel becomes increasingly hands on in his approach and tries his hand at set d...

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