Zrubavel

About The Film

A family of Ethiopian émigrés is torn between love for homeland and assimilation with Israeli culture in this first feature-length film ever created by Ethiopian Israelis. While born and raised in Israel, the Zrubavel family is of Ethiopian heritage. Living in a poor, crime-infested neighborhood, the children aspire to rise above their circumstances. The youngest, Itzhak (Daniel Beru), wants to become a movie director, the "future Spike Lee of Israel." But the family elders have their own plans for the kin, until a chain of events ignites a clash of generations. ZRUBAVEL is a universal story of an immigrant family trying to preserve its heritage in a new land in which they are viewed as outsiders. ZRUBAVEL is directed by first-time filmmaker Shmuel Beru, who at the age of eight, walked across the Sudanese desert to immigrate to Israel. Winner Best Film Award at the 2008 Haifa International Film Festival.