The Dybbuk. A Tale of Wandering Souls

Rebbe Nachman, the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, taught in Uman (Humań) and Breslov (Bracław). Nachman was born in 1772, four years after rebellious peasants and Cossacks led by Gonta and Żeleźniak had murdered thousands of Uman inhabitants – mainly Jews and Poles.

Every year thousands of Hasidim from all around the world visit Nachman’s grave. It is not to everybody’s liking. The people of Uman accuse the local authorities of corruption and betrayal. The Hasidim, in turn, are outraged at the planned erection of a monument to commemorate Gonta and Żeleźniak responsible for the Uman massacre.

Only the old Wolodia, who takes care of the Jewish cemetery in Breslov, is not interested in these quarrels. In the cellars under his house, in an abandoned synagogue, on the cemetery and in the air drift the countless souls of the dead. Dybbuks – punished spirits, are trying to escape from this world…

written and directed by Krzysztof Kopczyński
director of photography Jacek Petrycki PSC and Serhiy Stefan Stetsenko
additional cinematography by Volodymyr Hamalycya, Krzysztof Kopczyński
sound by Oleg Goloveshkin, Maciej Kaliński, Jarosław Roszyk, Aleksander Tur
editing by Michał Leszczyłowski
produced by Eureka Media
producer Krzysztof Kopczyński
executive producers Kuba Kosma, Gennady Kofman
co-produced by Memento Film, MaGiKa Film, National Cinematheque of Ukraine
co-producers David Herdies, Gennady Kofman, Danil Vulytskyy
production managers Konrad Wróblewski, Valeriy Sardudinov, Olga Beskhmelnitsyna
co-financed by Polski Instytut Sztuki Filmowej, Swedish Film Institute, Ukrainian State Film Agency, Media (program UE), Studio Produkcyjne Orka, Michał Leszczyłowski, The Society for Arts