PROMISED LAND

PROMISED LAND (HA'ARETZ HAMUVTAKHAT), 2004
İsrael, France | 35mm, Color, 88’ | English, Arabic, Hebrew
Director: Amos Gitai
Cast: Rosamund Pike, Diana Bespechni, Hanna Schygulla, Anne Parillaud

As he did in his controversial Free Zone, in Promised Land Amos Gitai draws the boundaries of a Middle East and Israel of which we are unaware. The film tells the story of a group of young Estonian women smuggled into Israel and auctioned off as prostitutes. Contrary to their expectations, their promised land is not a paradise at all but rather a sordid, anonymous, surreal world in which they are hustled and moved around like cattle