Choosing Exile 1999
Distributed by Filmakers Library, 124 East 40th Street, New York, NY 10016; 202-808-4980
Produced by Marc Radomsky
Directed by Marc Radomsky
VHS, color, 55 min.
Adult
Multicultural Studies, African Studies
Date Entered: 11/09/2018
Reviewed by Homa Naficy, Coordinator, The American Place: A Resource Center for Immigrants and Refugees, Hartford Public Library, Hartford, CTThe Zulu name for Johannesburg means The City of Gold, a bitter irony for a city that has become anarchic, violent, and crime ridden society, with a crumbling infrastructure. The threat of car hijacking is constant, with 600 hijackings a month, many of them fatal. The county has changed since the euphoria of the Mandela years and the apartheid legacy of racism and inequality continues to strap this society. Although the African National Congress has done much good, its failure to deal with corruption, its lack of accountability, and its position on AIDS are among the factors that lead filmmaker Marc Radomsky to make the difficult decision of choosing exile.
Choosing Exile documents the months prior to Radomsky's departure. He interviews his parents, grandparents, in-laws, housekeeper, friends, wife, and son (too young to understand most of what is going on, but not too young to feel the burden of sadness). The film successfully captures all the elements that make leaving one's motherland such a heart wrenching experience, a transition filled with anxiety, sadness, guilt, despair, and fear. Emigration also means immigration. How do you select a new homeland? In searching a future, Marc Radomsky rediscovers his heritage. He visits Ylakiai, Lithuania, to reconnect to his roots and to seek find some guidance and assurance that he is doing the right thing. After all, he is leaving for the same reason that drove his great grandfather to South Africa in the 1920s: safety. History proved the foresight of Loza Radomsky's move, since ninety-five percent of Lithuanian Jews were annihilated. Could Loza have dreamt that his chosen country would have also someday become so dangerous?
Choosing Exile is a film that carries messages to all Americans who may take for granted a decision an ancestor once made for them, and it is a validation for those who choose exile. This fast paced and intimate documentary, interlaced with a soft combination of background Yiddish and African sounds, makes it suitable for home viewing and ideal for public and or academic discourse about the emigrant experience.