Homecoming

Orna Ben Dor and Noa Maiman's documentary focuses on three teenagers who were born in Israel to non-Jewish foreign workers and therefore not automatically guaranteed citizenship. Indeed, many Israeli-born children are routinely deported if their parents lack the proper work permits to remain in the country. The trio profiled here are able to secure Israeli passports in order to travel to meet family in their respective home nations—Congo, Peru, and the Philippines. As the camera follows them on their journeys, it becomes evident that despite the geographic differences, all three countries share the same burdens of grueling poverty, a virtually nonexistent infrastructure, and dead-end lives for those unable to emigrate. All three of the subjects conclude their trips with bittersweet emotions; they have no attachment to their ancestral homelands, but they still feel like strangers in Israel, their place of birth. Ultimately, the young males from Peru and the Philippines need to join the Israeli military in order to gain citizenship, while the Congolese young woman struggles to obtain an Israeli identity card that will allow her to secure a full-time job. A provocative and moving study of ethnic identity, Homecoming offers a sharp criticism of Israel's problems with assimilating a multiracial and multicultural population that was never envisioned by the original Zionist movement. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)