Live and Become
In a new era of film making it is important to understand how to get projects off the ground. Producers are now looking to have work financed by multiple entities. Live and Become is a joint Israeli/French production. Furthermore, what I found interesting about this partnership is that France is well known for being an anti-Semitic country. Thus, it is interesting the Government would choose to co-finance a film about Judaism.
The Story is about “Shlomo”a Sudanese refugee. In a Sudanese refugee camp which is sheltering Ethiopians who have been displaced by civil war and famine in 1984, the Israeli secret service started a secret mission to airlift thousands of Falashas/Ethiopian Jews, to Israel. Shlomo and his mother are not Jewish but Shlomo’s mother convinces a Falasha woman whose own son died, to allow Shlomo to assume his identity. The story is about Shlomo’s internal struggle to live a lie, and how the so called Promised Land turns out to be rife with racism.
Although I loved the film and felt very close to its subject matter, I did feel that it was often too emotional. And, I did not like the end, clichéd!
However, as previously stated the partnership between Israel and France to create the film was what initially sparked my interest. I know I have already dealt with this topic briefly in my entry “Burberry Productions”, but now that I am aware of how many deal structure are associated with producing a work I am noticing this same structure in many productions. Even if one company gets a deal off the ground they involve so many other production houses and people. Of course the advantage is that the risk factor is reduced for all parties involved. However if a film is a success everyone is still able to make money.
For instance “Memoirs Of A Geisha” was financed by Spyglass, Sony, DreamWorks, Columbia and Amblin entertainment. Each entity takes credit for the film. However, if the film had not been successful none of the studios would have had to worry about to much of an economic loss. In this case they were all successful.
