Living a lie
10/10
Author: jotix100 from New York
1 January 2008

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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 Roschdy Zem, 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.