(apologies if this has already been posted, haven't seen it if it has)
I saw this on Twitter and a film blog I follow. People seem to be annoyed abut the way the situation is being depicted and how Israel is portrayed and the lack of Ethiopian authenticity. They see it as another white saviour film.
For context, the film is about the the 1984 Israeli 'Operation Brothers', where forces in Sudan took Ethiopian Jews through Sudan and into Europe to Israel. The Ethiopian Jews were said to be escaping war, famine and religious discrimination. The operation was seen as semi-controversial at the time, as people said that the mission was ingenious and was performed just to better the image of Israel and disprove the idea that Israel was a white ethno-state, and others said that Ethiopian Jews were not the only ones discriminated against and shouldn't have been the only ones evacuated. Nevertheless, thousands of Ethiopians were settled in Israel, where they still reside today. Other issues that have arisen is that the film makes it seem like colour didn't factor in anything during the operation development, when many Israelis at the time were outraged at the thought of black people living with them and instead tried to lobby other Jews from non-black nations to emigrate instead. It also ties in to todays issues, where Ethiopians suffer from discrimination and injustices in Israel, such as the aftermath of the sterilization of African Israelis (many being Ethiopian obviously), with a BLM movement recently due to a 19 year old police killing of an Ethiopian boy.
Personally, I find it interesting that such a niche topic in my school History lessons is being made into a Hollywood film starring Chris Evans and Ben Kingsley lol. I also agree with the sentiment of casting any Black person for any role being ridiculous. In real life, anyone can tell the difference between a Somali/Habesha and a West African / Carribean / African-American, so why act like we can't in the movie? I'm tired of the erasure of Horn Africans in movies, now the Ethiopians finally know how we feel after nearly every Hollywood centric Somali based film has starred non-Somali actors.
What do you guys think, or do you not give a shit and are wondering why I even posted it in here, as you're 'f*ck Itoobiyans' or 'f*ck the Yahood', or both?
Here are some other tweets about it:
I saw this on Twitter and a film blog I follow. People seem to be annoyed abut the way the situation is being depicted and how Israel is portrayed and the lack of Ethiopian authenticity. They see it as another white saviour film.
For context, the film is about the the 1984 Israeli 'Operation Brothers', where forces in Sudan took Ethiopian Jews through Sudan and into Europe to Israel. The Ethiopian Jews were said to be escaping war, famine and religious discrimination. The operation was seen as semi-controversial at the time, as people said that the mission was ingenious and was performed just to better the image of Israel and disprove the idea that Israel was a white ethno-state, and others said that Ethiopian Jews were not the only ones discriminated against and shouldn't have been the only ones evacuated. Nevertheless, thousands of Ethiopians were settled in Israel, where they still reside today. Other issues that have arisen is that the film makes it seem like colour didn't factor in anything during the operation development, when many Israelis at the time were outraged at the thought of black people living with them and instead tried to lobby other Jews from non-black nations to emigrate instead. It also ties in to todays issues, where Ethiopians suffer from discrimination and injustices in Israel, such as the aftermath of the sterilization of African Israelis (many being Ethiopian obviously), with a BLM movement recently due to a 19 year old police killing of an Ethiopian boy.
Personally, I find it interesting that such a niche topic in my school History lessons is being made into a Hollywood film starring Chris Evans and Ben Kingsley lol. I also agree with the sentiment of casting any Black person for any role being ridiculous. In real life, anyone can tell the difference between a Somali/Habesha and a West African / Carribean / African-American, so why act like we can't in the movie? I'm tired of the erasure of Horn Africans in movies, now the Ethiopians finally know how we feel after nearly every Hollywood centric Somali based film has starred non-Somali actors.
What do you guys think, or do you not give a shit and are wondering why I even posted it in here, as you're 'f*ck Itoobiyans' or 'f*ck the Yahood', or both?
Here are some other tweets about it:
