Film

Yentl

Name: Yentl
Genre: Music, Drama, Romance
Released: 1983
Cast: Barbra Streisand, Mandy Patinkin, Amy Irving, Nehemiah Persoff, Steven Hill

Yentl is Streisand's passion project—a lush, old-fashioned musical about a girl in 1904 Poland who cuts her hair and studies Talmud disguised as a boy. Streisand sings every internal thought aloud (nobody else does), directs, produces, and stars. It's sincere, unfashionable, occasionally overwrought, and genuinely moving if you let it in.

TMDb rating

6.7

If you liked this

Fiddler on the Roof1971

Same shtetl, same tug between tradition and the heart's own plans, but told through a father instead of a daughter—warmer, funnier, and just as devastating by the end.

But Three hours long and the sentimentality is turned up even higher than Yentl's.

Funny Girl1968

Streisand's first star vehicle, and the blueprint for everything Yentl does later—a woman too big for the room she's been given, singing her way out of it.

But It's a straightforward showbiz biopic with none of Yentl's disguise or gender politics.

Shakespeare in Love1998

Another story about someone slipping on a disguise to get into a world that's barred to them, wrapped in the same swoony, doomed romanticism.

But Comedy first, romance second—a much lighter touch than Yentl's earnestness.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Sylvia Scarlett1935no page yet

Same disguise-as-liberation idea Yentl builds a musical around, but as scrappy 1930s screwball rather than solemn period romance—proof the story is much older than the songs.

Katharine Hepburn spends most of the film as a boy named Sylvester and discovers she likes the freedom of it—a screwball ancestor to Yentl's whole premise, decades before Streisand sang a note of it.

But Choppy and tonally erratic, and it was a notorious flop in its day—this is a curiosity, not a polished classic.

Victor/Victoria1982

A woman playing a man playing a woman, done as bright, knowing musical comedy—if Yentl's disguise plot intrigues you more than its solemnity, this is the fun version.

But Broad and campy where Yentl is hushed and sincere; a different animal entirely.

Mulan1998

The disguise-to-serve-a-forbidden-duty plot done as family animation, with a girl proving herself in a world built to exclude her, songs and all.

But Aimed at kids—the stakes and heartbreak are softened considerably compared to Yentl.

A League of Their Own1992

Women elbowing into a world reserved for men, baseball instead of scripture this time, with the same mix of comedy, longing, and quiet fury at the rules.

But No disguise plot, and it's an ensemble comedy-drama rather than a romance.

Tootsie1982

A contemporary of Yentl playing the same cross-dressing premise for comedy—what a man learns about the world by disguising himself as a woman.

But Gender-swapped and joke-forward; none of Yentl's melancholy or music.

The Chosen1981no page yet

Same Hasidic world of yeshivas, fathers, and forbidden ambition, without the songs or the disguise—just two young men caught between faith and their own minds.

But Slower and more austere; no romance, no music, no Streisand radiance.

Little Women2019

Another period story about a woman whose talents outrun the life she's allowed, told with the same ache of wanting more than the world will grant.

But No Jewish setting, no disguise, and a very different, more modern filmmaking style.

Trembling Before G-d2001no page yet

Yentl's ache of being made wrong by your own faith and community, told here by real people instead of a fable, with none of the fairy-tale escape hatch.

Real Orthodox and Hasidic Jews speak about being gay or queer within the same devout world Yentl longs to belong to, with no music and no tidy resolution.

But Heavy, sometimes painful viewing—several subjects were disowned by family, and there's little uplift.

She's the Man2006no page yet

Strips Yentl's disguise-for-forbidden-access plot of its melancholy and music, replaying it as pure high-school farce—same skeleton, opposite mood.

A girl disguises herself as her twin brother to play the soccer she's told she can't, running the exact same engine as Yentl at a hundred miles an hour.

But Loud, silly, aimed squarely at teenagers—there's no tragedy or music here, just mistaken-identity slapstick.