Ladino - 500 Years Young

A Film by Rina Papish
(Israel, 2005, 52 Minutes, Color, Hebrew, English subtitles)

The film follows the rise of Ladino singer, Yasmin Levy, from the moment she discovers she can sing and all the way to international success. As she gets to know herself as singer, Yasmin rediscovers her father, Yitzhak Levy, a revered Ladino singer who, in the face of the decline of the language in Israel, chose to dedicate his life to recording and documenting the old Ladino songs before they became extinct.

Yasmin was one year old when her father died and she knew him only through his songs which were played in her home. She planned on being a veterinarian but destiny had it that she would become a singer, and she has taken it upon herself to immortalize and disseminate the Ladino songs that her father collected and preserved.

Ladino is the ancient Spanish of the Middle Ages in which the culture of the Jews of Spain developed and thrived. After their expulsion from Spain in 1492, the exiles continued to preserve the language in every place where they established a community, from Greece, Italy and Turkey, through Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and North Africa.

On a singing tour in Spain, Yasmin connects with her identity as a Jew whose ancestors were expelled 500 years earlier, and she finds her destiny.



AWARDS & FESTIVALS

Toronto JFF
San Jose JFF
Sepharadic Jewish Film Festival 2008, New York
Jewish Motifs Film Festival 2007, Poland - Bronze Warsaw Phoenix Award
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, U.S.A
Ukrainian International Documentary Film Festival 2007, Ukraine
Desert Jewish Film Festival, U.S.A
MUSIC ON FILM - FILM ON MUSIC (MOFFOM) -Prague
Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, Israel
International Film and Music Festival, Ashdod, Israel

Category:

Education

Tags:

• ladino
• sefarad
• yasmin
• levy
• spain
• spanish
• israel

[Bellydancingnana101]

Mother and daughter singing ... the voices of angels. Thank you.

[iSPaLiTo]

El día que España se partió en dos y aún nos seguimos buscando

[MoonSpirit1911]

@ozlemler I search for the name too..so did you find it somewhere?

greets

[Paula2Wordsmith]

One woman's work to keep Ladino alive becomes a blessing to many!

[ThePerfectBlack100]

This video is about the Atlantic slave trade that started 500 years ago.Not about one day the Ladinos said hey let's move and go relax. Ladino people went through a genocide and exist in the Americas today most would not know it though. The slave trade knocked them out and gave them amnesia.Thank god for the ladinos who survived assimilation or not to survive is to keep the tradition alive.

[ThePerfectBlack100]

be fair to the ancient ladinos and say why they left spain it was because the Alhambra decree enslaved those ancient blacks along with the Moors the black blood is so strong 500 years later you can still see it in Yasmine face especially her mother she looks like my great aunt that is not a pale ashkenazi she is totally Sephardic

[blessedeternally7]

Hermosa :)

[allroundp4p]

@ysuzuki1773 you sound like a french guy

[ysuzuki1773]

I like this song from japan. it was really beautifull.

[beberia]

tqm

[bodhidharma66]

Fabulous. Yamsin singing with her mother is very moving.



[SAACAAS]

she reunites with his roots-blood, so proud and i too.