The World to Come

Film Producer Thomas Barad received Puffin West’s third grant for the development of the film adaptation of Dara Horn’s seminal novel The World to Come being undertaken along with writer/director Mia Goldman. The book is unique in that it promotes a universal understanding of the struggle of Yiddish artistry in a way that has never been done before.   In an extraordinary narrative it uses the theft of a Chagall painting as the catalyst to tell the story of Yiddish culture in a contemporary and accessible fashion. This is art and education at its finest.  Like Shakespeare and Dickens it is steeped in history, in the truths of humanity: it provokes, and it nourishes the human soul.  The film adaptation would expose a broad international audience to a deeper awareness of the importance of Yiddish culture and the power of its influence that echoes in our world today. The World to Come is a story that is a work for the ages it will take the audience on a journey about the nature of faith, the importance of man’s creative spirit and his ability to make art even when the world is in chaos.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/books/review/19cokal.html