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Logline

In 1920s Stockholm, an old Jewish baker with a mysterious past battles a young mobster for control of his beloved bakery—all in Yiddish.

Synopsis

Der Beker will be a live action short film that follows Yosel, a 72-year-old Jewish baker, as he closes up his bakery for the night. Yosel is a quiet, resilient man, beloved by his community for the warmth and tradition embedded in his craft.

However, his peaceful evening is interrupted when Velvel, a troubled 23-year-old mobster, arrives to demand “protection” money. Velvel, eager to prove his worth to his superiors, tries to intimidate Yosel, forcing him to either pay up or face violent consequences.

Yosel’s quiet defiance sparks a standoff, contrasting Velvel’s desperate need for power with Yosel’s unshakable resolve.

Through tense dialogue and escalating conflict, Velvel is forced to confront his own moral contradictions, while Yosel stands as a symbol of resilience and the quiet strength of a man who has endured much more than this young gangster can imagine. The story is enriched with flashbacks, revealing Yosel’s journey as an immigrant who fled Eastern Europe to find peace in Sweden and open a bakery that would become his sanctuary.

As the confrontation reaches its climax, Yosel’s refusal to yield reveals a transcendant power, one that symbolizes the resilience of a community determined to preserve its culture and values in the face of oppression.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Ruben Levi — Writer/Director
Ruben Levi is an award-winning filmmaker from Stockholm. His script Der Beker ranked in the top 6% on Coverfly and earned a spot on The Red List for best short thrillers, while his short film Recurrence premiered at the Uppsala Short Film Festival in 2022. After living in New York, where he directed the documentary Lite Feet(featured on CNN International), Ruben has written and directed numerous shorts, music videos, and documentaries. Since the pandemic he has also explored Jewish life in Sweden through film

Zach Fineblum — Producer
Zach Fineblum is a producer, actor, and teacher living in New York City. He produced the award-winning short Red Gloves (2023), an official selection of ALTER, the internationally recognized streaming platform which showcases the best in new horror films from around the world. As an actor, Zach performed alongside Parker Posey and Christopher Lloyd in the period TV drama Granite Flats, and has also worked at renowned theaters across the US including La Jolla Playhouse and the Guthrie Theatre. Zach, former assistant to producer/manager Brian Medavoy, is a graduate of both the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theatre BFA Actor Training Program and Brooklyn College’s Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema.

Malla Grapengiesser — Executive Producer
Swedish producer with extensive experience including Oscar-winning film Searching for Sugar Man (2012, co-producer), The Intimate Touch (2020), and Stekenjokk and the Guardians of the Eggs (2019).

Annika Aschberg — Director of Photography
Annika Aschberg is a Swedish cinematographer known for her evocative, painterly approach to visual storytelling. With a fine arts background and training from The National Film School of Denmark, Annika’s work bridges the emotional depth of narrative filmmaking with the expressive instincts of a visual artist. She began her career as a still photographer, with work featured in Glamour, Rodeo, and Elle, before transitioning into cinematography. Annika has lensed fiction and documentary projects across Europe, collaborating with celebrated artists including Madonna. Her recent credits include the Netflix crime thriller The Helicopter Heist and the acclaimed drama Thunder in My Heart

Allen Lewis Rickman — Yosel
Allen Lewis Rickman is an American actor, writer, and director with extensive credits in both Yiddish and English. Television and film acting includes the Coen brothers’ Oscar-nominated A Serious Man, Boardwalk Empire (recurring role), You Don’t Know Jack (with Al Pacino), John Turturro’s Fading Gigolo, etc. Stage credits include Relatively Speaking (Broadway), Schnitzler’s Far and Wide (Off-Broadway), extensive regional theater credits, etc. Directing work includes the Yiddish Pirates of Penzance (also co-adapted), The Essence: A Yiddish Theater Dim Sum and Tevye Served Raw (also wrote), and the online Dybbuk (adapted/directed for the Congress for Jewish Culture). He has been a Yiddish consultant for film and television (The Cobbler, Son of Saul, Blue Bloods, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and translated dialogue from English into Yiddish (A Serious Man, Boardwalk Empire) and Yiddish into English (the recently published One of Those, subtitles for nine Yiddish feature films, etc.). His co-written farce Off the Hook has been produced widely across Europe.

Yisroel Rosenberg — Velvel
Born and raised in the Chasidic ultra-orthodox community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He spoke only Yiddish until he was fifteen when he began learning English and Hebrew. Sruli made his stage debut in NYC in December 2023 in The Gospel According to Chaim, a Yiddish drama produced by New Yiddish Rep.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.