'400 MILES TO FREEDOM'
USA, 2012.Awards and festivals:
2012. – WorldFest-Houston International Film & Video Festival – Platinum Remi Award
Summary:
In 1984, the Beta Israel, a secluded 2,500-year-old community of observant Jews in the northern Ethiopian mountains, fled a dictatorship and began a secret and dangerous journey of escape. Co-director Avishai Mekonen, then a 10 year old boy, was among them. "400 Miles to Freedom" follows his story as he breaks the 20 year silence around the brutal kidnapping he endured as a child in Sudan during his community's exodus out of Africa. This life-defining event launches an inquiry into identity, leading him to African, Asian and Latino Jews in Israel and the U.S. Through its themes of hidden and dual identity, recognition, human rights, freedom, and the triumph of the human spirit, the film aims to explore the diversity of the African and Jewish experiences and bridge gaps and facilitate dialogue across racial and religious divides.
