Dark Mofo is a space for oddities and the screening in the Hobart Town Hall of this 1920 silent, German horror with live music score by electronic artist Lucrecia Dalt is a good place to start.

A title card explains that the original print of the film had been lost and this version has been collaged from two discovered negatives and fragments of print. Divided into five chapters, it tells the story of a Jewish ghetto where a revered rabbi knows how to create a golem – a man built from clay and given life by the placing of a secret word into an amulet on his chest.

When the Emperor decrees that all Jews will be expelled, Rabbi Löw (Albert Steinrück) animates the creature (played by director Paul Wegener) with the help of a sidekick. Meanwhile, the Rabbi’s daughter Miryam (Lyda Salmonov) is enamoured of the Emperor’s squire Florian (Lothar Müthel) but things turn ugly when the Rabbi reads the necromantic fine print and discovers the Golem will turn against its master.

The story is expectedly clunky, with delightfully hammy acting that seems to foreshadow Monty Python and many a postmodern punk. There are moments that reminded me of Doctor Who in the 70s and 80s – in particular the wooden hair of the golem. It’s so delightfully Gothic and humorous that it is tempting to forget it was seen as a horror at the time.

The storyline both highlights the centuries-old discrimination against Jews and perpetuates it. The Emperor and his cohort are cultured, the Jews are conniving and simple. The similarity of the black pointed hats they wear to those of witches in popular culture speaks of vilification that still has resonance.

The pleasure, though, was in seeing this in a magnificent setting with an eery and experimental score.