German public television channel ARD-1 filmed footage at the Lithuanian Jewish Community on July 13 with a focus on the Bagel Shop Café for a program to be called “Berlin-St. Petersburg,” according to director Christian Klemke.

He said although the itinerary for the film crew had been decided carefully prior to their trip through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Russia, they had encountered interesting sites along the way which they will include in the final production.

When they were considering what to film in Vilnius, they discovered Vilnius’s rich pre-war Jewish cultural and spiritual life. “I wanted to know what there is now, so many years after the Holocaust,” Klemke said. Local producer Karolis Pilipauskas told him about the Bagel Shop Café. The Lithuanian Jewish Community facilitated meetings with members of the older generation, including Holocaust survivors. “I was very interested to hear their stories. Young members of the Jewish community also came to the café,” Klemke said.

The director said the final product will be a 3 hour film in two parts and should appear on ARD-1 next spring. The film has a facebook page under the earlier working title “Im Sommer nach St. Peterburg.” They interviewed Fania Brancovskaja and Tobias Jafetas at the Bagel Shop Café in Yiddish and German, respectively, and also filmed in Nida, Kaunas and along the way.

He said the idea of the café interested him when he read about it on the internet, and that it was a significant stage in the contemporary life of the Lithuanian Jewish community. He also said it would be of interest to German viewers.

Photos: Klemke in first photo from left; film crew in second with Thomas Lütz, Jan Urbanski and Ulli Menges, Brancovskaja and Jafetas being interviewed in third and fifth.