VA, VIS ET DEVIENS (GO, SEE, BECOME)

France, 2005, 140 minutes, Colour.
Yael Abecassis, Roschdy Zem, Moshe Agazai, Moshe Abebe, Sarak M. Sabahat, Roni Hadar, Yatzhak Edgar, Rami Danom.
Directed by Radu Mihaileanu.

Radu Mihaileanu was a political refugee to France from Romania in 1980. His background is Jewish. This has been an important theme for his films, especially the award-winning Train of Life. Now he has filmed in Israel, a film of broad scope which focuses on the experience of Falasha refugees from Ethiopia to Israel in the 1980s.

Usually, a review suggests that a film could be shorter. This film, although it runs for 140 minutes, really could be longer, especially in the third and final section. Compared with the satisfying pace of the first part (which comprises half the film), the final part is extremely hurried, suggesting significant events briefly and telegramming developments rather than dramatising them fully.

Live and Become is a very worthy film and crosses all kinds of boundaries, a plea for tolerance and understanding.

The opening of the film gives some basic information about the Falashas, the people of Ethiopia who claim descendence from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. In the 1980s and 1990s, they suffered persecution from the Ethiopian government and thousands fled the country. Many died on the way to camps in the Sudan. In the mid-80s, the United States, eventually with the help of Israel’s Mossad, airlifted many of them to Israel.

A 9 year old Christian boy is told by his mother to go with another woman and pretend that he is Jewish, Solomon, ‘Schlomo’. The film is very moving, thanks to the performance of Mosche Agazai as the young boy who experiences bewilderment at his mother’s action, confusion in a strange country with different habits for eating, sleeping and clothes, alienation although he learns Hebrew. He is adopted by a couple with two children and begins his road to becoming an Israeli.

There are some tense and funny moments as he is invited to say grace by his adopted parents who are not religious and when he cannot answer questions in rabbinical classes and gives a speech about Jesus.

The second part of the film shows Schlomo as an adolescent. He has become part of his family. A neighbouring girl is in love with him despite her bigoted father. In the third part, Schlomo is a young adult and the important events of his life including telling the truth about himself with the support of the Falasha leader who has been his source of strength for years, going to Paris to study, marrying and returning to Ethiopia to work and to find his mother are sketched very quickly.

The ending is one of those which causes problems where anti-sentimentalist audiences begrudge the happy ending all of us would wish for in real life.

Yael Abecassis, who plays the adoptive mother, was born in Morocco and lives in Israel. Roschdy Zem, on the other hand, is of Arab background living in Paris. The three actors who portray Schlomo are all Ethiopian Jews. Live and Become is truly a work of compassion and an appeal for understanding. Winner of an Ecumenical Award at the Berlin Film Festival, 2005.

1.The acclaim for the film, Israeli awards, Berlin Film Festival awards, ecumenical award? The sense of humanity?

2.The differing sensibilities: the Romanian director, his French background, the situation in Ethiopia, the film set in Israel?

3.Historical background, the Falashas? The war between Ethiopia and Eritrea? The Jews in Ethiopia, the descendants of Solomon and Sheba? Persecuted, the deal for them to escape, go to Israel, American help, the planes? The camps and the poverty, the lack of water, illness, the doctors? The migration, the Sudan, suffering, persecution and torture? Deaths? The flights to Israel?

4.Public opinion in Israel, weather the Falashas were genuine or not? Schlomo and his lies? Others? Finally some Falashas deported? The need for compassionate understanding of the refugees? Religious understanding on the part of the Israelis?

5.The use of the desert vistas, Israel and the countryside, the kibbutz? The city, homes, schools and streets? Jerusalem? The musical score and traditional music?

6.The structure of the film: the first seventy minutes with the boy Schlomo, the sequence of his adolescence, the brevity of his adult life – and the episodes going quickly, telegrammatic? The need for more amplification in the latter part?

7.The boy and his mother, in the camp, the difficult birth and the death of the child, the help of the doctor? The friendship of the other mother, giving the story to Schlomo, his own mother sending him away, slapping him? The pain for a nine-year-old? His going, looking back? The plane trip? His memories, the puzzle about his mother’s behaviour and motives, his longing for her? The return to Ethiopia at the end, the encounter with the doctor, seeing his mother, the reconciliation – and his having achieved what she wanted, to go, to see and to become?

8.The treatment of the refugees, the black Africans going to Israel? Their being accepted as religious? The plane, the arrival, the documentation, the interrogations – some genuine and some not? Schlomo and his going to the orphanage, his telling the story that he had prepared? The treatment in the orphanage, his not being at home, pining away, not eating? Not wanting to wear shoes, running away and covering so much ground? The character of a young boy, sensitivity? With the other children? The authorities and some being rough with him? His bewilderment? The kindly authorities? The discussion of the case – the meeting? The hard-headed members of the meeting, the more compassionate? The decision for him to be adopted?

9.Yael and Yoram, the decision to adopt a child, Yael’s explanation of what happened, her being unwilling, Yoram wanting to adopt a child? The other children and their attitudes – and the imprudent talk when Schlomo arrived? The meeting, the drive along the way, the countryside, his silence – yet his quick learning of the Hebrew language? His being brought into the home, his room? His inability to eat the food? The change of clothes, sleeping on the floor? The television and his going to school, the love that he experienced, Yael and her taking him by the hand, the clash and the racist taunts and her anger, his going by himself but her following? His walking barefoot home from school? The taunts, going to the rabbinical classes, his not knowing the answers – and his long speech about Jesus the Jew?

10.The rabbi’s class, the other children? His speech on Jesus? The later dispute and the explanation of texts about Genesis, Noah and his children, the blacks? Sarah and her explaining that he had a red skin? His using this in the public dispute? His opponent shaking hands, people’s acclaim, Sarah’s father and his having shut the door in his face, his not wanting to congratulate him?

11.Qes Amrah and his appearing on television, the traditional Ethiopian Jew, exercising leadership, the protests? Schlomo and his going from school, seeking him out, the bus ride, the discussions, asking him to write letters to his mother? The continued contact over the years, the friendship? Qes Amrah knowing the truth, his being a personal guide for Schlomo – and rescuing him after he was beaten up?

12.Yael and Yoram, their characters, goodwill? Yael and her understanding of Schlomo’s needs, especially the food – and her preparing it? This breaking down his resistance, the joy of the family when he began to eat? Their coping with him? The issue of religion – and his not saying the Grace? Times of anger, times of love? The brother and sister, accepting Schlomo – and the moments of jealousy?

13.Schlomo as an adolescent, with his brother and sister, at school? His friend and his writing the letters for Sarah? Her love for him, his surprise? The going out, dancing? Her father and his hostility? The preparation for the biblical dispute – his speech and the acclaim?

14.The character of Sarah, adolescent love for Schlomo, his writing the letters, her really knowing that he had written them? Going out, the father’s disapproval, the public dispute? The father and his continued hostility? The young adults, in love, the dates? His going away, the time passing, the confession to each other – and the effect on Sarah, her being hurt, Schlomo’s mother going and pleading for her to return, the burden of his secrets? The happy reconciliation? The happy marriage ceremony?

15.Schlomo as an adult, his feelings, longing for his mother, the news of the expose of some of the Falasha? His sense of guilt? His going with the prostitute in the club, his being bashed and robbed? His being rescued by Qes Amrah, telling him the truth? His decision to go away, the farewell to his family, his father’s reaction, his mother going to the airport? His time in France? Studies to be a doctor, his motivations, graduation and return?

16.The grandfather, his cheery disposition, his immediate welcome of Schlomo, his gifts over the years, his being someone that he could talk with?

17.Schlomo’s return, the proposal to Sarah, the happy marriage celebration? His telling her the secret – her reaction, the reconciliation? His decision to go to Africa – his working as a doctor, the reconciliation with his mother?

18.The emotional impact of the ending – some considering it too sentimental and manipulative, others finding it the appropriate climax to this journey and search?