Released in Ukraine this summer, the film Dovbush has as its title character a semi-legendary, Robin Hood-like figure who lived in 18th-century Ukraine. The film, apparently drawing on Jewish legends, portrays Dovbush encountering Israel ben Eliezer—the founder of Hasidism, known as the Ba’al Shem Tov (“good master of the Name”) or Besht—a contemporary of Dovbush who lived in the same area of Ukraine. The Ba’al Shem Tov is played by Luzer Twersky, an actor and former Hasid who often plays religious Jewish characters. Jon Kalish writes:
As the Besht, Twersky gets less than five minutes of screen time in the nearly two-hour film—he appears in three scenes. In the first, he encounters Dovbush who is in chains and assures the Besht, who had been submerging himself in a stream that served as a mikveh, that he’s not a thief. “Who could ever think that?” replies the Besht.
Dovbush asks the Besht if he is alone. “One is never alone,” the Besht replies. “But other than me, there is no one else here.”
Read more on Forward: https://forward.com/culture/568817/baal-shem-tov-dovbush-ukraine-luzer-twersky/