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Live and Become
Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
DVD
April 7, 2009 "Please retry" | — | 1 |
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| — | $4.68 |
Product Description
Product Description
The magnificent, epic story of an Ethiopian boy who is airlifted from a Sudanese refugee camp to Israel in 1984 during Operation Moses. Shlomo is plagued by two big secrets: He is neither a Jew nor an orphan, just an African boy who survived and wants, somehow, to fulfill his Ethiopian mother's parting request that he "go, live, and become." Buoyed by a profound and unfaltering motherly love - both in his memory and in the arms of his adoptive mother - he ultimately finds an identity and a happiness all his own.
Review
LIVE AND BECOME **** Starring Yael Abecassis, Roschdy Zem, Moshe Agazai, Mosche Abebe and Sirak M. Sabahat. Directed and written by Ra-du Mihaileanu. Produced by Denis Carol, Marie Masmonteil and Radii Mihaileanu. A Menemsha release. Drama. Aramaic-, Hebrew- and French-language; subtitled. Not yet rated. Running time: 144 min. "Live and Become" received a rare standing ovation at the Telluride Film Festival, evidence of the emotional power of a remarkable journey of discovery. The film centers on the plight of Ethiopian Jews, called Falashas, forced to flee to Sudanese refugee camps for relief from persecution and famine. In 1984, "Operation Moses" begins the airlift of Falashas to Israel. A Christian woman in a refugee camp wants a better life for her nine-year-old son (Moshe Agazai). She orders him to pretend to be Jewish so he can be airlifted out. After a poignant silent glance with the boy's mother, a Falasha woman whose son has recently died takes the boy's hand as she boards the plane to Israel. She names him Schlomo and passes him off as her own son. But in Israel, the adopted mother dies. Agazai gives Schlomo a face full of sadness as he yearns for his mother back in Africa. Schlomo is mystified by life in Israel, which is radically different from anything he had ever known. He is adopted by a liberal Israeli couple, Yael (Yael Abecassis) and Yoram (Roschdy Zem), with two children. Yael becomes a fiery defender of Schlomo against the prejudices he faces as he begins a new life. Schlomo must create a new identity while facing hostility as a black immigrant and always fearing discovery as a non-Jew. His struggles are extremely affecting. In the distinctive cast, non-professionals seamlessly mix with accomplished actors while "Live and Become" builds to an unforgettable final image. --Ed Scheid, Box Office Magazine
About the Actor
Sirak Sabahat plays the adult Shlomo in Live and Become. He was uniquely qualified for the role: Born in Ethiopia, Sirak s own migration to Israel is an amazing story of success and struggle not just to survive, but to LIVE AND BECOME. My name is Sirak M. Sabahat. Born on December 5th, 1981, as the eldest of four brothers, I spent the first years of my childhood in Walita in Northern Ethiopia. My life changed drastically in 1991 at the age of eleven. Being a member of the minority African Jewish community, my family and I left the town of Awassa in Southern Ethiopia to embark on our long and dangerous journey to Israel. We headed north towards the capital Addis Ababa, walking thousands of miles through the hot and dry desert. It was a long and hard march; and many of my relatives died on the way, suffering from hunger, cold and illness. When we finally arrived in Addis Ababa, we had to wait, fearing for our lives for five months in the interim camp, until the Israeli Embassy was able to bring the Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Operation Solomon was launched. With nothing but the clothes we were wearing, we were put on military air planes to be taken to the Promised Land. We arrived in Israel with high hopes and a strong feeling of relief just to face yet another hardship. It was a new country with a different culture; and the process of adaptation was not an easy one. Not everybody welcomed us: We were among the first Black Jews in Israel. For eight months, we were put up at Kiryat Shmona, cut off from the world around us. This was done to allow us to adjust to the new country first before finding our way in the new society. Following that, we were transferred to a trailer park near Naharia before finally arriving in our new home in the town of Ramla. I shortly left Ramla, going to a boarding school for gifted children near Kefar Saba. After all that we had gone through together, the separation from my family was not an easy one. At school, falling in was more difficult than I had expected. I was the only Black child; and my classmates often laughed at me or called me names. But I kept my spirits high and learned to navigate through hard times without letting it get me down. After graduating from high school in 1999, I started my acting studies at Haifa University. Here, I became the head of the Ethiopian Students Association, trying to encourage the integration and inspiration for Higher Education among the Ethiopian students in Haifa and all Israel. After my studies, I was cast for a Reality TV show and elected as the best actor on that program. I also became a host for a children s show on the Israeli First Channel. These acting experiences lead to my role as the lead actor in the French-Israeli co-production Va, Vis et Deviens Live and Become , for which I was nominated for an Israeli Academy Award in 2005. I have been on stage in Israel as well as in front of the camera, most recently appearing on stage as the lead in a production of August Strindberg s Miss Julia . I currently live in New York City.
About the Director
Born in Rumania on April 23rd 1958, Radu Mihaileanu emigrated to Israel and France in his teens. He studied filmmaking in Paris, taking a degree in 1983. Thereafter he worked as an assistant director on a number of large productions, most notably for American moviegoers on the James Bond film A View To a Kill (1987) before he established himself as a world class director with such acclaimed films as Betrayal (1993) and Train of Life (1998). With Live and Become I hope to provoke a large question. What is it, to become? Which is the question the little boy Schlomo must ask, all of his life. His mother says to him, Don t come back before becoming. And so he is forced to ask himself, What do I have to become? What do I have to do, to come back? And what she wanted all along was for him to become, simply, a human being.
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 2.35:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.72 ounces
- Item model number : MSHA55310DVD
- Director : Radu Mihaileanu
- Media Format : NTSC, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Widescreen, Multiple Formats, Subtitled
- Run time : 2 hours and 20 minutes
- Release date : April 7, 2009
- Actors : Yael Abecassis, Roschdy Zem, Sirak M. Sabahat
- Subtitles: : English
- Studio : Menemsha Films
- ASIN : B0011ZJ5BS
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #28,568 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #4,913 in Drama DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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I've been waiting patiently for it's release - was told it would be winter 2007, but it's popularity had it making the rounds in theatres catering to foreign films I guess.
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.
The acting is splendid, the photography is lush and you will fall in love with this saga about a remarkable young man.
show of anti-Israel manner. Taking the transportation of Ethiopians at great peril and trying to integrate into modern society. The film stoty teller finds only the crass and occasional discrimination to fling excrement on the deed rather than find the successes of the entire effort.
This is not the feel good ffilm "Noodle".
This is a bit of vomitus inducing trash. Save your money. Or if you need to get some hate off your chest this will be the cinematic yellow hotliner.
This tragic left wing political statement of a time waster gets ONE STAR and only because the ratiing system demands it for this butt wipe of a film.
Top reviews from other countries
It is a beautiful movie that leaves you thinking about it; discussing it & remembering it for a long time.
Truly an outstanding film!