Live and Become (French: Va, vis et deviens) is a 2005 French drama film about an Ethiopian Christian boy who is infiltrated among Ethiopian Jews in order to escape famine and to emigrate to Israel. The film follows his growing up and living as a Jew in Israel. It was directed by Romanian-born Radu Mihăileanu. It won awards at the Berlin and Vancouver and other film festivals.
Contents
Plot
In 1984, Schlomo, a nine-year-old Ethiopian boy, is placed by his Christian mother with an Ethiopian Jewish woman whose own son has just died. This woman is about to be airlifted from a Sudanese refugee camp to Israel as part of Operation Moses. Schlomo’s birth mother, who hopes for a better life for him, tells him "Go, live, and become," as he reluctantly leaves her to board the bus to the plane.
Shortly after arrival in Israel, the second mother dies. After living in a home for orphans, where he behaves badly, Schlomo is adopted by a tolerant family but remains depressed until he secretly sends a letter to the refugee camp of his birth mother. During his upbringing in Israel, both he and his adoptive parents experience racial prejudice. In his teens Schlomo meets a Jewish girl named Sarah, whose father is an extreme racist, and they fall in love. Schlomo tries to gain credibility as a Jew by winning a competition in Jewish religious interpretation. Despite his winning, Sarah's father's attitude is unchanged. Disappointed Schlomo goes to the police and reports himself as not being Jewish, but the police officer tells him off saying: “the newspapers are full of that stuff, the Falashas are no Jews. Now they begin to believe it themselves."
Schlomo leaves Israel and studies medicine in France. When he returns and marries Sarah, she is disowned by her family. But Schlomo dares not tell he is not Jewish until she becomes pregnant. Then she leaves him, but only because he had lied to her. His adoptive mother reconciles them, Sarah says on returning to him "Unbelievable what three mothers would do for you." But she makes it a condition that Schlomo must trace his birth mother. He takes a job as a doctor in an Ethiopian refugee camp where one day he accidentally finds her still alive.
Cast
Moshe Agazai as Child Schlomo
Moshe Abebe as Teenage Schlomo
Sirak M. Sabahat as Adult Schlomo
Yael Abecassis as Yael Harrari
Roschdy Zem as Yoram Harrari
Roni Hadar as Sarah
Rami Danon as Papy
Raymonde Abecassis as Suzy
Mimi Abonesh Kebede as Hana
Meskie Shibru-Sivan Hadar as Schlomo's mother
Yitzhak Edgar as Qes Amhra
Aaron Vodovoz as Kibbutz Boy
Joy Rieger as Tali
Accolades
In the United States
Audience Awards unless otherwise noted
Boston Jewish Film Festival
Washington Jewish Film Festival
Miami Jewish Film Festival
Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
Detroit Jewish Film Festival (Best Film)
San Diego Jewish Film Festival
Orange County Jewish Film Festival
Palm Desert Jewish Film Festival
Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival
Tampa Jewish Film Festival
Seattle Jewish Film Festival
Cleveland International Film Festival
Nashville Film Festival
Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival
Detroit Jewish Film Festival (Audience Award)
Washington DC International Film Festival (Runner-Up)
Aspen Filmfest