24/10/2005

An Ethiopian version of E.T.: That’s how Romanian director Radu Mihaileanu describes his new film, Live and Become [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Denis Carot
interview: Didar Domehri
interview: Radu Mihaileanu
film profile] (o.t. Va, vis et deviens), coming out eight years after his successful previous film, Train de vie (to which Cineuropa dedicated a Focus).

"I wanted to make a film about a child tying to return home. A film about four incredible mothers who save a child, which is also a metaphor for our small world that, like the film’s main character, needs these four women," said Mihailenau.

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The film, distributed by Medusa Film, will be released in Italy on November 4 and tells the story of a dramatic journey that in 1984 led thousands of Ethiopian Jews (the Falasha), and in particular the young Schlomo, to leave their homeland for Israel, looking for salvation and the Promised Land. "After the success of Train de vie,” explains the director, “it’s easier for me to find financing to make my films, but the pressure on me has also increased, in that I have to achieve the previous [level of] success at all costs. I don’t feel the need to make one film after another and, besides, I want to change my style. I follow a path in life that allows me to meet unique people and stories, like in the case of Ethiopian Jews, which deserves to be told."

(Translated from Italian)