Fiddler on the Roof Trailer (1971)

The trailer for Fiddler on the Roof.

The film centers on the family of Tevye (Topol), a Jewish family living in the town of Anatevka, in Tsarist Russia, in 1905. Anatevka is broken into two sections: a small Orthodox Jewish section; and a larger Orthodox Christian section. Tevye notes that, "We don't bother them, and so far, they don't bother us." Throughout the film, Tevye breaks the fourth wall by talking at times, directly to the audience or to the heavens (to God), for the audience's benefit. Much of the story is also told in musical form.

Tevye is very poor, despite working hard, like most Jews in Anatevka, also having many children. He and his wife, Golde (Norma Crane), have five daughters and cannot afford to give them dowries so they have to rely on the village matchmaker, Yente (Molly Picon), to find them husbands. Life in the shtetl of Anatevka is very hard and Tevye speaks not only of the difficulties of being poor but also of the Jewish community's constant fear of harassment from their non-Jewish neighbors.