ESRA Cinema Club members were recently treated to a beautifully crafted little movie. I, for one, loved it. It brought out all the emotions every immigrant feels when they live in Israel, and this particular film directed by Eli Tal-El was simply one of the best I have seen. His Q & A after the film was very illuminating.

The movie opens with young Ethiopian teens working in an orchard along with young immigrant Russians, who are all on a year’s pre-army course to help them feel part of the country. The Ethiopians decided that they wanted to go back to Ethiopia for a week to search out their roots, so are working in the orchards to help defray the cost of the trip. Uri, one of the Ethiopians, said he changed his name to a more Israeli sounding one to help him feel more Israeli.

The title of the film is in fact the crux of the film, as we watch these young immigrants,

cocky in the way Israeli kids are, with their Nike shoes and Fox clothes. These boys are longing to see and remember their roots. At the end of the film, Uri is shown as a fighting soldier in an Israeli paratroop regiment, comfortable in his own skin, but feels now he wants his original Ethiopian name back. He is a proud Israeli, but is also aware of his ethnic background.

The Ethiopians’ excitement was palpable when they landed in Addis Ababa whilst the Russians’ feelings were ambivalent, just another country to visit and take in the sights, so what followed was quite amazing.

All the boys had their cameras out taking pictures and looking up at the views of the mountains and the spectacular scenery.  Once they looked down, it was a different story.  Ethiopia is one of Africa’s poorest countries with unpaved roads, open sewers, and dirty, ragged barefoot children running around the streets. The grinding poverty was heartbreaking.

The group made their way to Gondar where many Ethiopian Jews came from. As they entered village after village, one boy found his non-Jewish godfather, one boy found his mother after 14 years. She had refused to leave with him and his father as her parents and grandparents were all buried there and she couldn’t leave them (sounds familiar?). In the movie, she wore a cross around her neck, but I’m not sure whether this had to do with the lack of joy and hugging that most Israelis would do upon meeting their son after so many years. Again, this country has its own customs, and the roads are full of unburdened donkeys and masters, but the women are bent over carrying massive loads either on their heads or their backs.

The essence of the film to me was the scene when one of the boys remembered the Bet Knesset in his village and wondered if it was still there. After having to abandon the bus and hike the rest of the way, the group came across the village and lo and behold, there was the Bet Knesset, locked, but still standing.  The boys entered the building and here the ‘miracle’ came about. The little building had been untouched since the Jews had left and, there inside, was a Magen David on the wall, and a box of dusty Hebrew books. That’s when the invisible walls and barriers came tumbling down. These boys hugged each other, cried and laughed together and prayed together, not as members of a group, but as brothers. Integration at the highest level.

The raison d’être for the group’s existence was to bring the different ethnic groups together and integrate them into Israeli society. These guys made it into the paratroopers and all are a credit to themselves and to Israel. They still are brethren, some are leaders in their communities and some are officers in the army.

We can only hope and pray that this feeling of brotherhood between ethnic peoples who immigrate to Israel will be easier for the next generations to come.