Steineded How sad is this?

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Danny G Live and Become is is about never giving up, no matter what! It's an optimistic story. When you do good in your life, good comes back to you when you least expect it.Parts of this story are incredibly gut-wrenching, I even had to fast forward the movie, at times. Vicariously experiencing the incredible suffering taking place in a refugee camp was unbearable. On the other hand, we get to see a relatively normal Middle Class existence through most of the story, which is quite a relief! While this is a fictional story the setting is 100% historically accurate. I felt like I was reliving the news from the 1980's! I remember the Falashas, also known as Ethiopian Jews and their evacuation from Ethiopia and the Sudan. I also remember what a hard time they were given by a large segment of the Israeli population, especially by the Ultra Orthodox religious establishment who did not consider them to be real Jews.The racism and constant humiliation experienced by Schlomo was mind-numbing, and symbolic of how the Falashas were actually treated back then. What a very sad commentary on the Israeli society of the time! I immensely enjoyed getting to see Schlomo played by 3 different actors: one as 9-year old, then as a teenager and finally as a man in his 20's. We literally get to see Schlomo turn into this incredibly brave and self-confident man. What a moving story! After watching it, I guarantee you it will strengthen your belief in a Supreme Being!

jpschapira 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.

Weredegu I can only talk in superlatives about this movie. It's so powerful that it takes a second viewing to realize that in fact it's even more powerful... Yes, there is a history lesson in it (Falashas, Middle East, Cold War, Gulf War etc.), and yes, it's an interesting tale about a person whom you just have to think to be real, but more than that, it's so universal in its way of talking about our search for a secure identity... searching for it in a process at the end of which we hope to end up in some nice future at the same time not having forgotten that what was precious in our past. To arrive at that, so much help is needed from good people you can trust, or so much luck, if you want to say it that way... This film will make you realize that and in the process it will awaken in you an overwhelming feeling of respect for human dignity as well.To Radu Mihaileanu I can only say, continue to give us this good films, please. If it takes years of research as it did in this case, so be it. Oh, and I hope to see all of the actors, too, again some day. How stupid of me, I will, of course, at the third viewing of 'Va, vis et deviens'.

jeromezz Obscure topics allows new perspectives. Removing us from our surroundings so completely this show gives us unique perspectives. Powerful, have you ever been mean to a new comer? I bet you have even if by accident. You will regret that after this.What is it to be a newcomer? Well now we have a better idea. Live and Become is perspective.Inspiration abounds; what a family story, what a childhood story, what a freedom story, the honesty of it; it is a tremendous trembling perspective. Just walking barefoot has never been so amazing.This subject is not popular, -a story about a black orphan trying to become a Jewish Israeli. Watching this story somehow becomes more private because it is so obscure. If this movie gets the audience it deserves it will diminish its uniqueness. Really worth watching but if you do keep it secret.