Lies My Father Told Me

For the 1960 film, see Lies My Father Told Me (1960 film).

Lies My Father Told Me
Directed by	Ján Kadár
Produced by	Anthony Bedrich Harry Gulkin
Written by	Ted Allan
Starring	Jeffrey Lynas Yossi Yadin
Music by	Sol Kaplan
Cinematography	Paul Van der Linden Árpád Makay
Edited by	Edward Beyer Richard Marks
Production company	Canadian Film Development Corporation
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	26 September 1978 (1978-09-26)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English
Budget	$CAD 1,100,000 (estimated)

Lies My Father Told Me is a 1975 Canadian film made in Montreal, Quebec. It was directed by Ján Kadár and stars Jeffrey Lynas as an orthodox Jewish boy growing up in 1920s Montreal. The film received the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1975.

The original story was written by Ted Allan in 1949. Allan, a Jew from East End Montreal, was working at an advertising agency. David Rome, editor of the Canadian Jewish Congress Bulletin, asked him to write a story immediately. Allan thought up a story and had it in Rome's hands within hours. It eventually became this Academy Award-nominated film and a novella.

Plot summary

The story tells of a six-year-old boy who would travel with his grandfather on an old horse-drawn cart through the alleyways in a Jewish ghetto of Montreal in the 1920s. The two would call out to residents asking to collect their old junk (a rag-and-bone man). The boy's grandfather was religious but his father was not. Eventually the grandfather dies, as does his horse Ferdeleh, leaving the boy feeling bitter toward his secular father.

Cast

• Yossi Yadin as Zaida
• Len Birman as Harry Herman
• Marilyn Lightstone as Annie Herman
• Jeff Lynas as David Herman (as Jeffrey Lynas)
• Ted Allan as Mr. Baumgarten
• Henry Gamer as Uncle Benny
• Barbara Chilcott as Mrs. Tannenbaum
• Carol Lazare as Edna
• Mignon Elkins as Mr. Bondy
• Cleo Paskal as Cleo

Awards

Academy Award nominee for Best Screenplay; Canadian Film Awards – Film of the Year, Adapted Screenplay, Actress (Marilyn Lightstone), Sound; Golden Reel Award; Golden Globes – Best Foreign Film

External links

• Lies My Father Told Me at IMDb
• Lies My Father Told Me at AllMovie
• Lies My Father Told Me at the TCM Movie Database