Live and Become has a curious mixture of nationalities
behind it. It’s co-written and directed
by Radu Mihaileanu – a Romanian man.
It’s the story of a black Christian boy pretending to be an Ethiopian
Jew growing up in
Things are really bad in Ethiopia in the mid 1980s. Thousands of people have walked over the
border into Sudan
and are living in refugee camps. The
Israeli government decides to rescue the Jews that are among them. A Christian mother with a young boy comes
upon a Jewish woman whose son has just died.
In a moment the Christian mother makes a decision and she asks the
Jewish mother to pretend that her son is the other who has just died. She tells her son “Go, live, and
become.” She knows that the only hope
for her son is to escape their current situation.
Not long after reaching Israel the boy, now known as
Schlomo, loses his pretend mother.
Before she dies she tells him to never reveal he is not Jewish because
he will be sent back to Africa . He is soon adopted by Moroccan-by-way-of-France
Israelis Yoram (Roschdy Zem) and Yael (Yael Abecassis). To say he has a hard time fitting in would be
an understatement. He has never seen
running water. He can’t sleep on the bed
because it’s too soft, so he sleeps on the floor. And he’s not doing a very good job of
pretending to be Jewish. He acts out
quite a bit. He finally comes under the
wing of an understanding rabbi, though.
The film transitions to Schlomo as a teenager. He’s smart, but he’s still not fitting in as
well as others. We see news clips of how
the black Jews are being ostracized in Israel . As one of them points out, they were
persecuted in Ethiopia for
being Jewish and they are being persecuted in Israel for not being Jewish, in the
opinions of a lot of white Jews.
This is personal for Schlomo since he likes a white girl and
starts to date her. Her father is not happy about this and it’s obvious he
does not consider Schlomo to be a real Jew.
Of course, the fact that the father is correct haunts Schlomo. Because he loves this girl and wants to be
with her Schlomo enters a debate competition on the Torah in order to show the
father that he can be the best Jew possible.
I won’t spoil what happens here with the competition, with the
relationship, or with Schlomo’s secret.
The movie then has a smaller third part with Schlomo as an
adult doctor who is serving in Africa . Despite all that he has achieved he still
didn’t feel like he truly belonged in Israel and he has chosen to return
to his roots. To do this he had gotten into
a disagreement with his adoptive father over wanting to go to medical school in
France
instead of serving in the Israeli military.
Live and Become does not shy away from showing the fact that
many Jews, victims of religious persecution themselves, were just as capable of
racist persecution of others. For
instance, as a boy other parents think Schlomo will spread disease to their
children in school and bring down test scores for the whole class. They don’t want him admitted.
It’s not all horrible, though, because Schlomo’s adoptive
mother really tries to get through to him, and the rabbi plays a very important
and influential role in his life. And of
course, the girl he falls in love with also loves him back, but Schlomo knows
that if she marries him she will be cast out by her family, even considered to
be black just for marrying a black man.
This is a well done film.
All three actors who play Schlomo at different ages do good jobs, with
the teen (Moshe Abebe) being the standout for me. I just checked IMDB and he has never been in
anything else, though, which surprises me.
If this film sounds interesting to you then I recommend you give it a
try.
Chip’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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