The Golem

Original title: Der Golem (1914).

"He is fumbling his way now along the wall; at this moment he must be laboriously spelling out the letters of my name in the darkness, on my door... The door opens, and he comes in... with the gait of a man for ever in fear of falling... unfamiliar face clean shaven, with prominent cheek-bones, eyes slanting... Terror takes me by the throat..."

This is the first meeting of Athanasius Pernath, gem-cutter with a shadow in his past, with the Golem the strange supernatural force reputed to haunt the ancient Ghetto of Prague. From this meeting grows an incredible web of experiences, set within the twisted crumbling walls and dark passages of the Ghetto around the turn of the century. Strange mystical visions, wonderful transformations, lurking terrors and perplexing revelations come into being around the twin personalities of Pernath and the Golem, against a background of hatred and frustrated love, malice and cabalistic saintliness.