Live and Become

<strong>LIVE AND BECOME</strong> is a sweeping epic told through the intense intimacy of one boy's survival admidst the Ethiopian famine of the 1980s. The film begins with an exceptional sequence in a crowded Sudanese refugee camp, as American and Israeli forces airlift thousands of Ethiopian Jews (called Falashas) to the Holy Land in a secret mission dubbed "Operation Moses." An African mother colludes to place her 7-year-old non-Jewish son among the evacuees in hopes of saving him from a grim fate. Young Solomon (Moshe Agazi) is swept away to Tel Aviv and taken in by a French Sephardic family. Renamed "Schlomo" by his adoptive parents and forced to conceal his true identity, salvation slowly gives way to the inner emotional decay. Struggling with the infrastructure of a new family, the teachings of Judaism and the sting of racism, Schlomo seeks out the support of an Ethiopian community leader and mentor, Qes Amhra (Yitzhak Edgar). As a teenager circa 1989, Schlomo (now played by Mosche Asebe) falls in love, but the romance only underscores the tension and deceit of his feigned life. The film's powerful concluding chapter centers on Schlomo as an adult (Sirak M. Sabahat) and his bold actions toward self-healing.

The scale of the film's production rivals the ambitious arc of the storyline itself. Director Radu Mihaileanu spent years researching the Ethiopian experience. Some 2,500 actors were auditioned to represent Shlomo at the different stages in his life. The three chosen actors (all deeply affecting performances) had to be able to speak multiple languages and maintain a consistent character. Technically beautiful, <strong>LIVE AND BECOME</strong> is filled with vivid African and Israeli landscapes, and features an almost operatic African and Middle Eastern score by composer Armand Amar. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival.