SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL | SFJFF 2010

Over the past two years, 8,000 refugees, mostly from war-ravaged African regions including Darfur and southern Sudan, have risked their lives to cross into Israel via Egypt in search of asylum. The Israeli government has accepted 500 as legitimate, busing the remainder back to Egypt and to unknown fates. Filmmaker Shai Carmeli-Pollak (Bilin My Love, SFJFF 2008) brings us the deeply personal stories of those who have fallen through the cracks in humanitarian responsibility. Combining interviews and news footage with guerilla-style camera tactics, Carmeli-Pollak takes us beyond the poised politicians who call the refugees “infiltrators,” past the frustrated social workers with no food or housing to offer, and into the lives of the refugees themselves. Among those we meet is Adam, an English teacher from Darfur who arrived with only his wife’s handbag—a sobering reminder that his wife and children, who did not make it past the border, are imprisoned in Egypt. This powerful documentary asks whether a country built on the premise of welcoming refugees has a special moral obligation to accept immigrants today, despite very different practical and economic conditions. The parallels to the United States’ own immigration conundrums are lurking just beneath the surface of the film’s humane portrait of a pressing global problem.
—Shira Zucker

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