Transit

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.

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.

"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.