Sisai

In this emotional, eye-opening and unforgettable documentary, Ethiopian-Israeli director David Gavro introduces us to his younger brother Sisai and invites us on an extraordinary journey to find the father that Sisai has never known. Ethiopian Jews now living in Israel, David and his family have adopted Sisai, now a 23-year-old soccer playing charmer. When dad breaks the news that he has located Sisai’s biological father in Ethiopia, the two brothers decide to revisit the country that long ago had been their home. Winner of the first prize for documentary at the Jerusalem International Film Festival, Sisai is a touching portrait of immigrants caught between two worlds. At family meals, trips to the synagogue and interactions with social agencies, we feel the poignancy of an Ethiopian family trying to assimilate into an Israeli society in which they are welcome yet never fully integrated. Once in Ethiopia, they cannot escape the feeling of being privileged outsiders in a desperately poor country and must come face-to-face with the choices their parents have made in order to give them a better life.