"They Were Promised the Sea", (original French title, "Pour Une Nouvelle Seville"), color, RT. 74 minutes: Canada~Morocco co-production. Reviewed by Alex DeLeon, Casablanca
Director: Kathy Wazana. Stunningly shot in locations such as former Jewish Berber villages, They Were Promised the Sea is a lyrical meditation on loss and longing, on hope and the possibilities of coexistence.
Despite the misleading titles in both French and English this is a penerating documentary about the lost Jews of Morocco, lost on two accounts: Lost to Morocco when they left en masse for Israel under Mosad sponsored "Operation Yachin" in the early sixties, believing they were under threat, and then, Lost IN Israel, the "Promised Land" whose promise turned out to be a big disappointment when they were treated there as second class citizens by the Ashkenazic Jews of eastern Europe who had established the State of Israel in 1947.
Anyone following the fortunes and misfortunes of Israel over the decades would be aware of the so-called Moroccan problem surrounding the fact that a sizable portion of the country's population are Sefardic Arabic speaking Jews from Morocco who have only grudgingly been accepted by the majority Ashkenazic Jews from Eastern Europe who run the country. Ms. Wazana who is herself of Moroccan Jewish ancestry, but born and raised in Canada, spent four years tracing her roots and interviewing Moroccan Jews in Israel and in Morocco where there is still a remnant who never left. Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel Morocco had the largest Jewish population in the Arab World, firmly established and dating back to pre-Islamic times. Many of them were very much integrated with the original Berber population, and to this day, even in Israel, still speak Tamazight and other Berber dialects. Wazana visits one such former Jewish town in the midst of the Berber desert which is now a ghost town of bare stucco walls in a beautiful mountain setting. An interview with an elderly Berber gentleman indicates that the Jews were fully accepted and he wishes they would return. And this is exactly what this film is about.
Wazana makes the point (through interviews) that the supposed threat to Jews which caused a panic and mass exodus of Jews from their long established homeland in Morocco, did not actually correspond to the reality on the ground and was basically Israeli propaganda used to gather in a needed work force to build the nation. Their relations with their moslem neighbors , except for a few isolated incidents, was basically friendly and fully integrated. While the Jews in other Arab Countries such as Egypt and Iraq may have had good reason to fear anti-Jewish violence this was apparently not the case in Morocco, the Arab country with by far the largest Jewish community, 250,000 in 1940. Moreover the basic Arab culture of the Moroccan Jews in Israel caused them to be viewed as outsiders. They were in fact settled at first in the worst border regions of the country far from the "better life" they were promised to lure them to Israel, and have had difficulties ever since as far as achieving equal status with the Ashkenazic upper class.
The bulk of the film follows a prominent Israeli woman activist of Moroccan origin, Shira Ohayan, on an extended visit to Morocco to trace her roots. In Tetouan up north, a Spanish speaking area, she finds somebody who does fondly remember the family of her mother who used to live there. In Casablanca she visits the Jewish museum and has a heart to heart talk in French with the curator who is a distinguished leader in the remaining Casablanca Jewish community. At one point, to demonstrate their inherent Arabness she challenges him to speak in Arabic, which he does, but she apologizes that she only knows Egyptian Arabic, not the local dialect! The curator takes objection to some anti-Israeli remarks she makes and finally she says: "Je ne suis pas chez moi nul part!" -- I don't feel At Home anywhere --- Which basically sums up the identity dilemma of the Berber speaking Moroccan Jews of Israel -- and would have made a much more appropriate title for the film to start with.
The reference to Seville in Andalusian Spain will be lost on the general viewer as a reference to the moorish conquest of Spain when many prominent Jews such as the philosopher Maimonedes took up residence there, and the business about "Promising them the sea" is way off base -- The were promised Land -- not sea. A straight forward title like "The Lost Moroccan Jews" would be much more apt and likely to attract the wider audience this remarkable study of confused cultural identity deserves to have. It has relevance not only for Morocco and Israel and for Jews and Arabs, but for everybody, especially now in the age of mass Islamic migrations caused by the upheavals in the Middle East. These people will have similar identity problems in the host countries of Europe. Kathy Wazana's timely film could open many eyes on both sides of the cultural divide if it ever reaches them. Ms. Wazana has been barnstorming All over Morocco with her film and I was luckily advised by Radio journalist Mouna Belgrini of a one night stand at the venerable ABC Cinema in downtown Casablanca on the last Monday of the year. It turned out to be one of the most fascinating documentaries I have seen all year long and a capstone to my current Morocco experience which started a month ago with the Fifteenth Marrakesh film festival.