Transit (I) (2013) User Reviews

Well written, unique story of OFW

[Sirfaro11 · 8/10 · 5 October 2013]

Glad to have caught this running in local cinema, the Philippines' submission to Oscar this year holds promise to get at least a nomination, unlike previous contenders. This tells the story of a Filipino family's trials and tribulations in a foreign country, Israel.

The movie tells the story in five different views, some scenes keep repeating but I feel some scenes could be trimmed down. For example, when the two siblings came home from city rollicking , there was really no significant addition in Joshua's story. The story of Mercedes Cabral also felt out of place, other than to emphasize Medina's selfishness.

Overall, this is a well written, well directed by first time lady director Espia. The story is unique and provides a tender drama that OFWs go through. I am glad that the OFW here is not portrayed as maltreated by an employer, but instead show the innocence of a child caught between political and social issues.

The Plight of Temporary Residents

[ilania_a · 8/10 · 7 August 2014]

This film was included in the 34th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (2014). It deals with the problems of Philippine citizens who come to Israel to work as Care-Takers without having any legal standing in the country. They all come to earn money, and most send money home to support their families. While they are in Israel they generally live in their employer's residence and stay out only on their day off. For their time off, they share quarters in the ugliest parts of the city, and are subject to deportation if their old-sick employer passed away; unless they are immediately hired to care for another infirm employer.

This story reveals the plight of those among the Philippine workers who have children either with an Israeli partner, or between themselves. The children grow up speaking Hebrew, going to school in Israel and are also in danger of being deported. It is well acted, however, as an Israeli-born (and educated) I found that the actors chosen did not speak Hebrew as either a person who has been in Israel for over ten years, or a school-aged child who grew up in Israel.

And A Child Will Lead Them

[3xHCCH · 7/10 · 1 August 2013]

"Transit" tells the story of Filipino diaspora in Israel. It specifically deals with one family, siblings working in Tel Aviv. They have expired working visas. They are in hiding.

Janet works as a housekeeper. She has a teenage daughter Yael by a former Israeli boyfriend. Janet's brother Moises works as a caregiver. He has a four-year old son Joshua, whom he has to hide because of a newly-passed Israeli law that seeks to deport children of illegals less than five years old.

The same story is told from five different points of view of five characters. Each episode will add an additional detail and dimension to the story. This innovative technique of story-telling sets this movie apart.

It was also impressive that the Filipino actors all seem to be speaking flawless Hebrew. (I say seem because I have not heard good Hebrew being spoken before in actuality.) However, many conversations where parents spoke Tagalog and the children answering in Hebrew can be disconcerting.

Irma Adlawan was very real in her role as Janet. I hope though that she could try to minimize her "harassed mom" mannerisms, which were very reminiscent of how Ms. Caridad Sanchez did it before.

Ping Medina was convincing as the proud, paranoid, suspicious, and practical father Moises, who simply wants to keep his child with him in Israel. He did not care whether others called him selfish. His look has matured a lot since I first saw him in another indie film "Numbalikdiwa".

I found the episode with indie princess Mercedes Cabral (as the new arrived Tina) extraneous and not contributory to the main narrative. The momentum of the story actually dipped in this middle episode. I did note that Ms. Cabral could probably play Sen. Nancy Binay in a biopic.

Jasmine Curtis-Smith is really a very beautiful young actress with no bad angles, even when she was in tears. Not only that, she was able to rise up to the challenge of portraying the conflict of Yael, a teenager who was born and grew up an Israeli, yet struggling to keep the Filipino flame alive in her as her mother wanted.

With due respect to these older actors though, the success of the movie actually hinged on the star-making performance of child actor Marc Justine Alvarez as Joshua. He outdid everyone else as far as acting is concerned because he did not seem like he was acting at all. That tense scene where he was willing his "cloak of invisibility" to work was simply amazing in its innocence.

This film is very good in its technical execution. The cinematography was very clean with some breathtaking camera angles in the scenic port city of Jaffa and the historic Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. The film editing is definitely of awards-caliber as it seamlessly went from one point of view to another.

Admittedly though, the story though may not be very interesting to the general public, as it would probably be for OFW families. The story of illegal OFWs may also not be too flattering in the international scene. But the high quality of story-telling and film-making by director Hannah Espia makes this film worth catching.

Israeli law threatens children of Phillipine labourers

[maurice_yacowar · 7/10 · 5 January 2014]

In Hannah Espia's Transit one narrative strategy at first appears to be a redundancy in editing. A scene we've seen is repeated, usually with a little more information. This occurs frequently, as the narrative provides the different perspectives of five characters, climaxing with the threatened four-year-old boy's.

This device has at least two thematic effects. It dramatizes the inter-weaving of different characters' lives. Society is a web of such intersections, which means a single person's predicament can affect many others. Hence Janet's criticism of daughter Yael's irresponsibility. Ironically, little Joshua is deported not as a result of Yael's selfishness but because the boy rushes out to get help for his father's ailing Jewish employer. Joshua's new toy plane, a gift from the old man, is both a boundless joy in its promise of soaring freedom and an omen of his deportation.

Also, the device validates the individual experience over any abstract principle. An incident can mean quite different things to each of its participants. As in the different versions of the Janet-Yael confrontation, we get a different emotional settling in the two perspectives. Our next step is to read the abstract law not as a principle but as a harsh intrusion into individual lives.

While the film clearly criticizes the Israeli government's policy to deport immigrant children under five years old, the film works as a kind of love song to that nation. The immigrants clearly find a life, freedom and opportunity there. Some like Yael come to feel primarily Israeli. Some like Joshua even want to become Jews. Unlike much criticism of Israel, this film targets a government policy but endorses the culture and opportunities the nation provides.

The film might have taken a small step further — providing at least some rationale for the government's policy. After all, Israel is not the only country wary about its intake of immigrants. And Israel uniquely faces threats -- internal as well as from its surrounding neighbours -- to its very existence. Tthe film does grant that the harsh policy has been softened with some exceptions, but the mass of immigrant labourers still feel compelled to hide their children.

As little Joshua is deported and his father Moises is permitted to stay and work in Israel, the film plays a reversal on the Biblical forebears. Moises can return to the promised land, which Moses I was denied. But where the Biblical Joshua led his people into the promised land this little Joshua is deported to the Phillipines — even though he was born in Israel, speaks Hebrew fluently and can recite at least the first lines of his father's boss's bar mitzvah Torah reading. The reversal of the Biblical names' signification recalls Israel's mission to provide a home for the homeless, a haven for the persecuted -- but what should be done when that openness runs up against the threat to the unique character of the one Jewish state? For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com.