Wow! Such a good movie.

Wonderful Movie

I wanted to but couldn't!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Va, vis et deviens is a film that touched me deeply. Radu Mihaileanu shows us, once again, his great sensibility and his genius for telling emotional and profound stories while denouncing injustices, racism, hunger and poverty. Schlomo's story makes us think about intolerance, racism, motherhood, unconditional love and religion. This is an essential movie for all of those who feel strangers no matter where they are. Schlomo's story was written by Radu Mihaileanu, but it is based on thousands of personal stories of Ethiopian Jews who emigrated to Israel in 1984 under the so-called "Moses Operation".Va, vis et deviens won several awards (Berlinale: 3 awards; Copenhagen International Film, and the César award for Best Original Screenplay –Meilleur scénario original–). It was the first film dealing with the immigration of the Ethiopian Jews to Israel. The movie is in Amharic, Hebrew and French.The best: Radu Mihaileanu's sensibility, the 3 Schlomos (Moshe Agazai, Moshe Abebe and Sirak M. Sabahat), the music (Armand Amar), and the Qes Amhra (Yitzhak Edagr).The worst: some small over-dramatic moments.

I was very lucky to catch this film at the end of its run here in Washington, D.C. I found it absolutely stunning. One of the biggest issues it raised for me (and for the main character, I believe) was, in the face of the kind of devastation faced by Ethiopia in the 1980s, who should be saved, and why? I felt that a lot of Shlomo's anger, at society and at himself, resulted from his guilt at being one of the few survivors, which was compounded by the fact that, technically, he shouldn't have been one of the survivors since he wasn't Jewish. But this raises the larger question: why does a Jewish Ethiopian have a right to survive while a non-Jewish Ethiopian does not -- an issue that in a sense turns on its head the similar question raised by the Holocaust, when being Jewish was a death sentence rather than a basis for survival.The film is beautifully filmed and acted and touches on so many important and often difficult themes -- though generally with a light touch -- that it's hard to know where to begin. Most importantly, unlike most films I see these days, the drama in this film is real. It's too bad it's so hard to get a chance to see this film, but if you do get the chance, take it.

To Whom It May Concern: I was very moved by Live and Become. I am happy a film like this has been made, especially because it allows non-Ethiopian Israelis and non-Israeli Jews to get a glimpse into the reality of an Ethiopian immigrant's experience.Despite the wonderful qualities of Live and Become, I feel compelled to voice a complaint about the film. A film like this has great power – it has won countless awards and been viewed by millions of people around the world. The film presents itself as being factual and contemporary. For these reasons, I feel that you have a moral obligation to maintain your 'factual' and 'contemporary' agenda across the board – both for the Ethiopian experience as well as for Israel the state. You can be fictional or accurate with both or neither, but you can't pass yourself off as being true to the one, and be completely inaccurate with the other.Examples: 1) As the Ethiopian immigrants enter Israel, someone says "All the Jews in Israel are white". Including a line like this in your film makes you morally culpable in reinforcing false stereotypes about Israel. Israel has enough unjust PR against it, framing the conflict as the "colonizing white Europeans" versus the "dark-skinned, indigenous Palestinians", which makes it all too easy for the uneducated majority to take a side. If you have an opportunity to factually educate the public, why did you choose instead to maintain ignorance? Over 30% of Israelis, throughout history, have been born and raised in the Middle East (Israel and surrounding Arab countries), the Mediterranean, and Africa. Nobody talks about that fact.2) In the scene where Schlomo asks his grandfather about a just solution to the conflict, I understand your intent is to portray the French family as liberal and left-wing. But there are ways to portray those political views without again reinforcing gravely mistaken misunderstandings about the Arab-Israeli conflict. The comparison of a newly planted tree to Israel and an old tree to Palestine is outrageous – Jews have been living in the land of Israel, continuously, for over two thousand years. Unfortunately, more people these days watch movies than read books. So the audience you've reached with your film will more likely base their opinion on the Arab-Israeli conflict from the message you've presented, rather than doing their own research on Jewish presence in the land of Israel over history. For this reason, you are guilty of furthering misinformation and hostility against Israel – you have rejected, rather than seized, an opportunity to help the peace process.Given the very factual, and very contemporary, suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians, you have committed a grave mis-service to everyone involved with your misleading messages. The least you could do is remedy these scenes, and make a public statement recognizing the true constitution of Israel's population and history in the land.

The story told during the internationally-produced film "Live and Become," is, beyond any doubt, touching; nay, it is heart-wrenching. To witness even a fictionalized version of the poverty suffered by the starving Ethiopeans in the opening scenes of the film; of the fears and challenges of a child coming of age in a strange country; and of the social and religious complexities faced by Ethiopean Jews living in Israel is at once horrifying, confounding, and inspiring. If one has the chance to see this film, do so without hesitation, for the story it tells is one to which all should pay great attention.Despite its important story that promotes diversity, "Live and Become" falls short cinematically. From the first establishing crane shot, through the shot-counter-shot narrative, to the extremely disappointing final scene in which the director employs both slow-motion and a frustratingly melodramatic overhead shot, the direction, cinematography, and editing feel very slick, even Hollywood-esquire at times. While such technique is merely bland and predictable in most films, in this case it is particularly disappointing, given the very urgent and very real content of the film: the final cut would have benefited greatly from the directors pursuing a realist aesthetic, which would have impressed the audience more with the gravity of narrative.The acting, however, is quite impressive, especially that of the non-professionals: Yitzhak Edgar and Moshe Agazai. Equally impressive is the performance of Yaël Abecassis.Finally, the score, which I generally find to be the most overrated (and usually unnecessary) element in contemporary cinema, is subtle at times, but, at others, throbs operatically, detracting greatly from the poignancy of many of the more touching and inspiring moments in the narrative.In short, "Live and Become" is clearly not aimed at spurring audiences to social activism through cinematic means; it accomplishes this end through the narrative, which, while effective, would have been enhanced greatly had the filmmakers chosen a more realistic style throughout the work.