Customer Reviews

Live and Become

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Live and Become" is one family's fictionalized story of the historic exodus of thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the 1980s.

Today, Ethiopian Jews aren't quite as surprising a group as they were when they first emerged on the world stage. This year, the story of world-class peace activist Ephraim Isaac showed up as one of the honorees in "Interfaith Heroes 2."

As a journalist in the 1980s, I visited Ethiopian Jewish communities in Israel and experienced first-hand the bittersweet nature of their exodus from life-threatening conditions in Ethiopia to this new homeland. While Israelis, overall, worked hard to make them feel welcome -- they also experienced bigotry, suspicion and the bewilderment of cultural displacement.

In Radu Mihaileanu's movie, "Live and Become," he heightens the passionate connection with Ethiopia. He introduces his main character, Schlomo, as a 9-year-old boy who two Ethiopian mothers nearing their own deaths decide to "save" by declaring him a Jewish child.

When Schlomo arrives in Israel, he must deal with an intense homesickness, bigotry from a few white Jewish neighbors and a guilty secret about his non-Jewish identity that he fears may lead to his imprisonment. That's a whole lot for a 9-year-old boy to shoulder and it's understandable that, most of the time, Schlomo walks through his new life with his handsome face bowed.

But Schlomo is strong, extremely smart, talented at languages -- and in his heart he carries an almost instinctively Jewish love of God and the world. He pours his life into Torah study. He strives to become even better than those few students who want to humiliate him.

Finally, Schlomo benefits from an Israeli family who adopt him and become his strongest defense. If you're not Jewish and don't particularly care about Israel -- the film still is stirring. On a human level, this is a heart-warming movie about the spiritual callings of both parents and children.

The film runs nearly two and a half hours and, eventually, Schlomo becomes a young man and falls in love with a white Jewish girl, named Sarah. Unfortunately, Sarah and Schlomo have a major crisis in their relationship. I won't spoil the outcome, but as their emotions flow back and forth -- Sarah eventually says to Schlomo: "It is amazing how many mothers love you!" And that's certainly true, we have to agree.

As a parent watching this film myself, that scene was stirring. This is a rare movie if only because the parents (with one or two horrible exceptions) are depicted from start to finish as fiercely, compassionately committed in their love of their children. There's a great deal of hope portrayed here for the world's orphaned children -- and that's a very welcome message these days.

In the end, that makes "Live and Become" is a universal experience.

This is an epic story, following the life of an Ethiopian boy for about 15 years, from a camp in Sudan to Israel and France. Comparisons to "Forrest Gump" will be made by some as this film turns pages of history and has a lot of heart.

When Israelis come to Sudan to rescue Ethiopian Jews as part of "Operation Moses" (1984), Salomon's mother, an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian urges him to go to Israel and pass as a Jew, so he won't die in the camp. Salomon is only 9 at the time and obeys his mother, leaves for Israel with an Ethiopian Jew woman who lost her son in the camp, and becomes known as "Schlomo". Once in Israel, Schlomo's new mother dies and after a rough time, the boy is placed for adoption and ends up in a liberal French-Israeli family. The third mother is thus "white" but loves him immensely. (The film does go into a sweet and interesting discussion of races). This all happens in the first minutes of this beautifully-filmed story which I will not spoil for you.

"Live and Become" explores finding one's identity, dealing with adversity, understanding cultural differences, searching for true friends (and don't we all need good friends?) and striving for excellence. There is humor too in this drama, like the scene when Schlomo decides to turn himself in at the police station.
The acting by the three boys that play Schlomo at different ages is very good. I found writer/director Radu Mihaileanu amazing, what a love story!

A few warnings: at 2 hours and 15 minutes this film might seem slow to some, but I believe it needs all that time to tell the story, and it picks up speed at the end. The film is not yet rated in the USA but because of mature themes, some language (including couple F-words in subtitles) and a particular scene I would not show it to children younger than 12.

Live and Become is a coming-of-age story in an exotic setting. It concerns a little Ethiopian Christian boy who is sent by his mother on an Operation Moses plane to Israel with the Ethiopian Jews who are being rescued. It takes him a long time to untangle his identity as he faces both acceptance and rejection by various Israelis. Things all get settled by the end. Languages spoken in the film are Hebrew, French, English and Amharic with English sub-titles. It is both charming and interesting.

This is the story of Schlomo (Solomon), a 9 year old Ethiopian young boy whose Christian mother disguises him as an Ethiopian Jew to take the place of a Jewish boy his age who has just died and whose mother is being airlifted out of a Sudan refugee camp in 1984 as part of a rescue mission operated by the Israeli secret service to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel. His mother's parting words as he very reluctantly leaves are 'go, live and become'. He does go and he does live (his 'new' mother dies shortly after arriving in Israel) and the film is about becoming. He is adopted by a secular Jewish family. Becoming is hard enough growing up under normal circumstances. What if you must keep the secret that you are not Jewish and should never have been admitted to the country, learn to live in family where you don't fit in easily, adapt to a culture that is foreign and unfriendly to blacks and experience all the many adolescent challenges of hormones, loneliness, and a great ache for your homeland and birth mother? How does one cope with all these challenges? The three actors that play the various stages of Schlomo's life do an outstanding job. There are many levels which hit your emotions as you watch this. You want to him to survive and mature but it's so difficult, the odds are not good and you know he most likely would have been dead had he stayed in Sudan. Somehow he must persevere and overcome and 'become'. A heart-breaking and uplifting story of the human spirit and the will to live and become. Lu G. for Lu's Reviews.

This tour-de-force told the story of an Ethiopian Jew who was ushered to Israel only to be discriminated against just as he did in Ethiopia. It all came down to the colour of the skin. In Ethiopia, he's regarded as an outsider and in Israel, just like his counterparts, he's been branded as the opportunist who took advantage of the welfare provided by the Government. He was adopted into a leftist and non-religious family that loved him unconditionally. With a strong foundation, he was left to explore and discover his true identity. The movie spanned from his early childhood until his adult year when his life came a full circle. A movie that's beautifully made and overwhelmingly powerful. Highly recommended.

Live and Become is one of those rare films that is truly identifiable across the globe. No matter what color your skin is, what language you speak, what economic status you come from etc... We have all contemplated the subject matter that this movie bases itself around: Identity. And we have all asked ourselves the questions this movie attempts to answer. Who am I? Where do I come from? What am I supposed to be and how do I become it?

The film follows Schlomo, an Ethiopian Christian masquerading as a Jew upon orders from his mother, in hopes he be transported to Israel and live a better life. It is broken up into three parts of Schlomo's life and is very effectively played by three different actors (Moshe Agazai, Mosche Abebe, and Sirak M. Sabahat).

After a troubled stay at an Israeli boarding school (fights, attempts to run away etc.) Schlomo is adopted by "a very left wing family," a proud father, a standoffish mother, a loud rude son, and a quiet polite daughter. Here he has difficulty accepting them as his family but eventually does so, supplemented by secret prayers and letters sent back to his birth mother with the help of his Ethiopian Rabbi-mentor.

Cut to 7 years later where Schlomo (now 17) is a well assimilated adolescent and is going through all the inevitable ups and downs that come with the age. There are girl problems; his girlfriend's father doesn't approve of him because he is black. He must prove himself to the community; which he does by winning what the film calls "Controversies," a debate of sorts in order to show ones knowledge of the Torah. And there are family problems; as his relationship with his adopted mother grows stronger, so do feelings of losing his birth mother.

After another 8 year jump into the future Schlomo is now a grown, mature 25 year old Med Student. He is studying abroad but does a good job of staying in touch with those whom he loves. Upon return he is married. This then poses the question will he reveal his secret to his bride? This, paired with an ending that brings the story full circle, will make this 2 hour and 15 minute movie well worth the time spent watching.

"Go, live and become," is a line delivered by a heartbroken Ethiopian Christian mother as she sends her 9-yr old son off to Israel to escape starvation and the harsh conditions that Ethiopian refugees experienced during their relocation from their famine-stricken homeland. This cryptic but compelling farewell will guide (and haunt) her son as he accompanies Hana, a bereaved Ethiopian Jewish mother, whose own 9-yr old son Schlomo (Solomon) had died that very same day during their relocation to Israel under Operation Moses in late 1984.

Thus begins a tale of intrigue, love, and deceit. The young Ethiopian Christian boy assumes the identity of Schlomo, an Ethiopian Jew, and is relocated covertly with his "new" mother by the CIA and the Israeli Defense Forces to Jerusalem. Young Schlomo struggles to protect his assumed identity as he assimilates into the Israeli culture.

Romanian-French filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu deftly directs this French-Israeli-Belgian epic drama. He weaves together the various themes and subplots of racial and ethnic antagonism, adoption, maternal love, family separation, acculturation, and identity crisis. Some will say that so many themes are not treated adequately, but I think that the number of issues that Schlomo experiences during the 20 year span of the film serve to highlight the many personal and cultural dilemmas that he faces.

His coming of age is a daunting one. At the risk of having his false identity revealed and face deportation back to the Sudan or Ethiopia, Schlomo must forge his own identity while having to learn Hebrew and French and the nuances that are part of those 2 cultures. Those pressures weigh heavily on him at times and test his mettle as he struggles to BECOME.

This is a heartfelt drama with fine performances by Abecassis as Schlomo's adoptive mother and by each of the 3 male actors who portray him, but especially Sirak Sabahat as the adult Schlomo. I think Sabahat has a very promising career ahead of him.

I saw this film 3 years ago at a film festival, and absolutely fell in love with it. The story is beautiful and the journey of the little boy is very moving.
This young boy must assume another child's identity in order to be evacuated from a refugee camp in Ethiopia during the famine. The truth about his identity haunts him throughout his life, and we come to understand a little of what it would be like to live with a lie that you feel would devastate everyone you care about. It is an especially moving story of a the love of 2 mothers. There is a scene where the adopted mother licks his face, which is amazingly powerful.
This film won audience favorite in the festival. I have been looking to buy this film since I saw it.

The stirring redemption of Ethiopia's falasha Jews and their miraculous voyage to Israel is the subject of this movie that is often very moving, especially in its first half, but then tries to do too much and loses its way.

The hero of this movie, Shlomo, is not Jewish. We meet him at age nine almost starving to death in a Sudanese refugee camp. His mother sees the chance to save him by smuggling him on board a plane to Israel as the substitute son of a Jewish mother whose son has died. The new mother dies soon after his arrival in Israel and he is eventually adopted by an Israeli family of French origins.

We follow him growing up, encountering gross racism from some Israelis but also kindness from others. To say he has an identity problem is an understatement. He is living a lie, forced to forge a completely new identity as a Jew, knowing that his mother sacrificed her own life for him, telling him to "Live and Become."

The first hour of the movie is very strong. We identify strongly with this poor, confused little kid, trying to come to terms with a new country that is not entirely hospitable, and a new family.

But later sections take us all the way through repeated wars, conflicts and world events, springing up quickly through 15 years of history. Shlomo becomes a doctor in France, falls in love with an Israeli girl, returns to serve in the IDF during the second Intifadah, and winds up caring for starving people back in Sudan where the movie reaches a predictable and sentimental climax that left me dry-eyed.

There's a lot to admire in this movie but it did lose its focus for me in the closing minutes.

This DVD was stunning in scope and delightful to watch. I loved this film! It shows how the gift of life traveled with a dearly beloved young boy, and how this adopted child became the recipient of enormous love and good fortune in his new homeland. I did not know adoptive parents could summon up such wisdom and passion for a chosen child.

The acting is splendid, the photography is lush and you will fall in love with this saga about a remarkable young man.