VIFF 2005 Reviews

Between November 1984 and January 1985, some 8,000 Ethiopian Jews (so-called “Falashas”) were transported to Israel as part of ‘Operation Moses’. Faced with civil war and widespread famine, thousands of desperate Jewish families fled Ethiopia on foot in hopes of being smuggled into ‘the land of milk and honey’, overwhelming Sudanese refugee camps, separating children from parents, and taking an incredible human toll. The last living child of a non-Jewish family is forced by his mother to migrate to Israel, though she cannot follow. He assumes the identity of a recently deceased Jewish boy, promising to keep his real name, birth religion and non-orphan status secret. In Israel, he is re-named Shlomo and placed with a nice, white, left-wing family.

Though physical survival is no longer an issue for nine-year-old Shlomo, he still faces many challenges in his new life - adjusting from his rural farming community upbringing to Israel’s highly-industrialized society, learning two new languages quickly, pretending to be a Jew. Depicting his arrival and early months in Israel as well as two later times in young Shlomo’s life, a greater challenge emerges – anti-African sentiment. A clear indictment of Israel’s divisive political atmosphere, we see protests (both for peace and against granting the Falashas the privileged true Jew status) and news broadcasts creating rifts within the family, and underscoring the problems for Shlomo in the outside world.

Live and Become has already won audience awards at festivals around the world. It’s easy to understand why. It’s a beautifully acted, seamlessly executed and genuinely touching piece about courage, resilience and love – things we festival-goers seem to eat up. Luckily in this case, those qualities are just the beginning.