In 1872, Mordechaj Abramowicz Towbin was born to a merchant family in the
Volhynian town of
Zaslav, then part of the
Russian Empire. He arrived in
Warsaw at some time before the beginning of 1907. He lived with his family at an apartment in the central district of the city, outside of the
Yiddish-speaking northern neighborhoods. In January 1907, he helped found
Iluzjon, one of the first cinemas in Warsaw; he soon became the co-owner of the establishment, and was its sole owner by 1910. In 1909–1910, he also ran the "Society of the United Cinematographic Factories
The Luxgraph", a company which screened films at open-air events and the
National Philharmonic Hall. He established the city's first
film rental and distribution office in 1910. '' (1908) In early 1908, Towbin commissioned and produced a film later entitled , 'Prussian Culture', detailing conflict between the Poles of
Poznań and the ruling German authorities. The film was inspired by political conflicts over the previous years against
Germanisation policies, including the 1901
Września children strike and the protests of
Michał Drzymała. Local Russian authorities in Warsaw prevented Towbin from producing the film domestically, leading him to commission a French firm; this may have been the production studio , which had business ties to Warsaw. In May 1908, the film was screened in
Moscow and Italy, although censorship likely prevented it from being shown in Poland until 1914. At some point in the late 1900s, Towbin founded a production studio named . Later in 1908, he collaborated with stage performer
Antoni Fertner to produce a short comedy titled ('Antoś in Warsaw for the first time'). Fertner commissioned the film and played its protagonist, a rural man befuddled by city life. Premiering at Fertner's cinema,
Oaza, in October 1908, it was generally considered the first Polish film by later film historians before the rediscovery of in 2000. After he hired a camera operator (
Stanisław Sebel) and director (
Mark Arnshteyn) for his studio, Towbin produced a series of adaptations of Yiddish plays and dramas. Many of these were collaborations with the
Literarishe Trupe, a theater company ran by the Kaminsky family. The first of these, ('The Cruel Father', 1911) was simply a filmed performance of a play by the
Literarishe Trupe. Towbin produced a total of nine features over his career. Branching out from Yiddish cinema, he attempted to reach a broader Polish audience in 1912 with
Wojewoda, but was commercially unsuccessful. folded later that year, but was quickly succeeded by
Kosmofilm, a production studio founded by one of his former associates. Towbin retired from production, but continued operating his cinema and film distribution businesses. Towbin left Warsaw, either following the outbreak of the
First World War in 1914 or (more likely) the German occupation of Warsaw the following year. He died around 1920. ==Filmography==