Massa’ot James Be’Eretz Hakodesh
Israel,
2003, 87 min
Shown in 2004
CREDITS
- dir
-
Ra’anan Alexandrowicz
- prod
-
Amir Harel
- scr
-
Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, Sami Duenias
- cam
-
Shark (Sharon) De-Mayo
- editor
-
Ron Goldman
- mus
-
Ehud Banay, Gil Smetana, Noam Halevi
- cast
-
Siyabonga Melangisi Shibe, Arie Elias, Salim Daw
- source
-
Zeitgeist Films, 247 Centre St., New York, NY 10013. FAX: 212-274-1644. EMAIL: woodburne@zeitgeistfilms.com.
-
COMMENTS
Ra’anan Alexandrowicz in person.
OTHER
James, a Zulu farmer on a Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem, is arrested as an illegal migrant worker when he arrives in Israel. Bailed out by a black-market slave boss who forces him into his migrant labor pool, James’s unpredictable journey goes straight into the dark heart of Israeli capitalism. Part African folk tale, part biting social humor, this story begins as a wild ride through the seedy side of cosmopolitan Tel Aviv with its neon clubs, high rise apartments and beachside bars, and ends at the crossroads of the new global economy. As James trades his rural innocence for a flashy, cell-phone-wielding survivor’s cynicism, his Israel is a strange land of glitzy shopping malls, Nikes and Nokias, colorful immigrants from Asia and Africa and old, tired Zionist pioneers whose dreams have turned to dust. Half a million illegal foreign workers have replaced most of Israel’s Palestinian laborers in recent years, and director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz depicts this transformation with authority, compassion and a street-smart sting. South African actor Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe is charismatic and moving as the spiritually challenged James, and Palestinian actor Salim Daw is striking as the edgy, underground Israeli businessman. The Holy Land they inhabit is less the dream of milk and honey than a reality of abuse and misfortune.
—Deborah Kaufman
FACTOID #7
Governor Pat Brown welcomed the crowd at Opening Night of the Festival October 30, 1963. Other attendees included George Peppard, Willie Mays and the governor’s wife Bernice; it also happened to be the couple’s 33rd wedding anniversary.
