yentl (1983)

“Papa, watch me fly”
- Yentl Mendel

There was a time when there were no women barristers, no women justices, no women bar topnotchers, when an almost equal male-female population in law school population was unheard of, and Ally McBeal was not even imaginable. There was a time when the study of law was limited to men, and such was the time of Yentl Mendel (Barbra Streisand).

Rebbe Mendel (Nehemiah Persoff), Yentl’s father, was a man, however, far ahead of his time. Rebbe who was a Talmud teacher, secretly taught his daughter not only the labyrinths of the Torah but more importantly the joy of learning and the belief that the acquisition of knowledge is a gift that should be shared by humankind, irrespective of gender. And then Rebbe dies, leaving Yentl all by herself.

Yentl then decides to venture out into the world. She leaves the village and managed to get herself into a Yeshiva to study Jewish law and tradition by passing herself as a boy. In the course of her life as Anshel, she falls in love with her classmate Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin), who of course thinks Yentl is a man. Life even becomes more complicated when Avigdor gets engaged to Haddas (Amy Irving), and then Haddas marries Anshel, and then Avigdor finally gets Haddas. Yentl, to extricate herself from this Anshel/Yentl persona, even had to bare her bosom to drive home a point. Yes, Virginia, a woman living life as a man in those times was truly hazardous, wearisome, and treacherous.

Barbra Streisand, in true Yentl fashion, stars and directs the film. Yentl won the 1984 Academy Awards for Best Music and Best Adaptation Score and the 1984 Golden Globe Award for Best Director.