This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The first must-see film of the year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Radu Mihaileanu's "Live and become" could be defined as an 'indie crowd-pleaser'. I know it's not the best definition, but think about it: a European movie with a lot of nonprofessional actors, an inspiring title and story…Strong story. Films like this one always make the intelligent viewer suspicious, and with reason. There were many things I though I'd see in "Live and become"; I found them all. The script, by Mihaileanu and Alain-Michel Blanc, constructs its bases from something that has to be veridical because of the way the movie presents it, with admitted seriousness. If it's not, then the director and his writing partner have made us believe the suffering throughout someone's life and the film's most revealing moments from something that never occurred. Schlomo, the film's main character, leaves a village in Ethiopia because his mother obliges him. Soon the 9-year-old, a non-Jew, finds himself in Israel saying a name that's not his (but it's the only one we ever know he has) and admitting to be a part of a religion he didn't grow up knowing: Judaism. When he leaves his mother, she tells him something like: "Live and become, and don't come back until then".The boy obeys, of course, but lives his whole life trying to understand what his mother meant, as he talks to the moon as if it where his mother and writes letters and arguments to defend himself in debates relating them with his personal feelings. In his life in Israel, he lives with adoptive parents Yael (Yael Abecassis) and Yoram (Roschdy Zem), who love him but, although he learns to love them back, he only wants to go back home. One man will help him manage this desire, but I won't tell you who he is because the role he plays in the boy's life and how they meet each other is probably the film's highest point.I don't want to sound disqualifying, but it's hard to sustain a story like the one "Live and become" presents. I suspected that it would center everything on the boy's dilemma, and it did. Everything revolves around the prejudice and consequences of Schlomo's situation; some discussions become predictable and sometimes it seems this is being exploited so much that it leaves the rest undeveloped. The truth is that there's not much more character development in the film than the three- dimensional Schlomo, who is played by three different actors and only one seems to comprehend him (Sirak M. Sabahat), when the boy is no more and we see him in his maturity. When I said "Live and become" was a crowd-pleaser, I meant that it knows the material it's dealing with and the effect it can generate in an audience. It's a big dramatic effect of course, that generally provokes a big smile or a little tear. The experience I had with "Live and become" is very similar to the ones I had with "Whale Rider", from New Zealand, and "The Pursuit of Happiness" from USA; both crowdpleasers. "Whale Rider" relied on Keisha Castle Hughes' presence to generate emotion (and maybe too much on the images), and 'Pursuit' relied on Will Smith's chemistry with his son (and not so much on the images). Here, the actors don't have the sparkle, and Mihaileanu bets it on the music-loud and heartbreaking-and the images. The three films are moving; I said it, but I didn't buy any of their stories. This one could have the most solid general development, a fact that may redeem its poor, crowd-pleasing ending.

A film of epic proportions, "Va, vis et deviens", shows an excellent director, Radu Mihaileunu at his best. Mr. Miahueunu, who co-wrote the screen play with Alain Michel Blanc, gives us a slice of life in this life affirming film that will please audiences because the way these two men decided to present their story that centers around a tragedy perpetrated in Africa.A young Ethiopian child sees enough devastation around him. When he is separated from his own mother, a kind Jewish black woman, advises him to assume a new identity, that of an Ethiopian Jew, so he will qualify to be taken to Israel, part of a plan to help settle these unfortunate people in the land of milk and honey. The young man, who has witnessed enough tragedy during his short years, goes along and is taken to a place where he has no one, or even belong.Schlomo, as he is called, is lucky enough to be adopted by a kind Israeli family with two young children of their own. Being black in an almost all white society has its disadvantages, as the young man learns early on. The love of his adoptive parents should have been sufficient, but he is a child that knows he doesn't belong among these nice people that have opened their home, and accept him. Schlomo, who we see through different aspects of his life, as a boy, then a teen ager, and a grown man, meets an older Jewish black man, another fellow Ethiopian, who helps him overcome his fears and ask him to come clean, not only to Sarah, the woman who loves him, but to everybody. The big secret he has been carrying all his life, is a burden keeps him enslaved all his life, revealing it, will free him of the tremendous guilt in his heart.There are excellent all around performances in the film. Yael Abecassis and Roschay Zen, who play the adoptive parents make a tremendous contribution to the film. The young Schlomo is acted by three different actors, all of them good. They contribute to make this, one of the most credible movies in a while.The hauntingly beautiful music of Arman Amar, and the cinematography of Semy Chevin, make the film even better to watch. The director, Radu Mihaileunu shows great sensitivity with the material and turns a great picture that will be hard to forget.

This is one of the best films i have ever seen . It was only scheduled for one screening at Van film fest in 2005 but after an email campaign got a second screening, peoples choice award and subsequently general release, still not seen by as many as it deserves. Sublime! It should be part of every schools curriculum. If its the only film you ever see , let this be it. The direction, storytelling , performances are all heart wrenching and uplifting. The fact that i am writing about it 2 years later says something! It restored my faith in cinema and the power it has to change and empower lives. English title is 'Live and Become" Does anyone know if its on DVD or video?

I am amazed by the fact that this film did not get more advertising exposure. Perhaps, it is because it surrounds a theme particularly interesting if one is Jewish and even then the plight of the Falasha or black Ethiopian Jews is little known among the general Jewish population. Despite that, there is, I think, much in this film to which everyone can relate. It captured my soul and I was emotionally enmeshed in it. A black Christian Ethiopian young boy in a Sudanese refugee camp, because of the urging of his mother, pretends to be Jewish to get to Israel to escape the horrendous conditions he is in. It surrounds a dire conflict in Sudan which took place in the 1980's and the Israeli Operation Moses rescue which air-lifted those Ethiopian Jews caught in the middle of that struggle and brought them to Israel. It could, however, certainly be the Sudan that exists today, Iraq or anywhere the brutality of warfare occurs and the innocents who are swept up, enveloped, brutalized and killed by it. It centers around concepts of racism and man's inhumanity to man. It is also about love -- especially a mother's love for her child, a stranger's love and a love between two people which transcends race.For those who are Jewish, I think, it is an especially poignant film as it is about what it means to be a Jew, who is Jewish and how that is determined. It reflects the diversity in Israel itself about those core, ever-present and debatable issues which determine Israeli citizenship. It is about the plight of the Falasha or Ethiopian black Jews in Israel who are refugees and allowed entry into Israel solely based on their being Jewish. Sometimes, the larger Jewish populous who consider themselves white have ambivalent and less-than-welcoming feelings about the Falasha. Clearly, worldwide, being a Jew is more than being religious and this work points that out insightfully and with pathos. I have no criticism of the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it.