Live and Become

An epic story of love, survival and identity. A Christian mother forces her nine- year-old son to declare himself Jewish in order to be included in Operation Moses, the rescue mission staged by Israel to enable the Ethiopian Jewish community to escape the famine of the mid-eighties. He arrives in Israel, where he is given the name Shlomo. Officially, he is an orphan and after a difficult, rebellious start, he is adopted by a French Sephardi family. Shlomo grows up fearing that his secrets will be discovered, but whatever happens he never forgets his real mother who stayed behind in the camp and he dreams of finding her again.

Winner of the Label Europa Award Panorama Audience Award Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlinale Film Festival, 2005