Fiddler On the Roof

Plot Summary

Norman Jewison's adaptation of the long-running Broadway musical is set in the Ukranian ghetto village of Anatevka. Tevye the milkman, played by Israeli actor Topol, is constantly being challenged by his poverty, the romantic entanglements of his five daughters, and the prejudicial attitudes of non-Jews. Tevye carries on lengthy conversations with God whenever the weight of the world becomes too much for him, he does not answer but he is at least more willing to listen than the milkman's remonstrative wife Golde. Tevye is forced to do some quick rearranging when his oldest daughter Tzeitel falls in love with poor tailor Motel Kamzoil after he has already arranged a marriage between her and wealthy butcher Lazar Wolf. Fancying himself more broad-minded than his gentile oppressors, Tevye cannot accept the notion that his other daughter Chava would want to marry Fyedka, a non-Jew. When Tevye and his neighbors are forced out of Anatevka by the Czar's minions he must find a way to change his tune and his entire life.