| Shmuel Beru | |
|---|---|
| Born | Shumiya Bru 1975 (age 48–49) Amhara Region, Ethiopia |
| Nationality | Beta Israel |
| Citizenship |  Israel |
| Alma mater | University of Haifa (2001) |
| Occupation | Film Director |
| Notable work | Zrubavel (2008) |
Shmuel Beru is an Ethiopian Jew who migrated to Israel where he became an actor, screenwriter, and film director.
Biography
A native of Ethiopia, he was born to a Beta Israel family in 1975 with the name Shumiya Bru that lived near Gondar, in the village of Gond Roch-Marim.
Beru migrated to Israel at age 8, in 1984 with the first wave of Ethiopian immigrants, traveling via Sudan a year before Operation Moses began. Once there he would become an oddity amongst his new, predominantly lighter skinned classmates, and adopt the name Shmuel.
Beru served in the Israel Defense Force, from 1996 to 1999, he would also begin acting the same year that he joined the military in the Israeli Army Theatre. He would find few openings for African actors, and the work he did receive typecast him as a pauper, bad guy, or a bodyguard despite his small build.
Beru would begin screenwriting by making skits with fellow actor Yossi Vassa, who he met at the University of Haifa, which he went to between 1999 and 2001 for a B.A. in both theatre and political science. Building off of that, Beru, inspired by the works of Spike Lee, would then write his first feature film and make his directorial debut with the film Zrubavel. It came out in 2008 and garnering him acclaim in his new residence of Tel Aviv. This film would officially make him the first Ethiopian film director in Israel, and received an award at the Haifa International Film Festival. It was a film partially based on his own experiences as an Ethiopian migrant in Israel. In it he would examine the faults of the Beta Israel community and the hardships they faced from the society they found themselves in.
References
- ^ Herzberg, Nathaniel (2009-11-02). "Nouvelle Vague à Tel-Aviv". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- Anderman, Nirit (April 8, 2019). "'Second-class Citizen' in Israel, Ethiopian-born Screenwriter Tackles Ignorance of Her Birthplace". Haaretz. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- ^ בית-יוסף, ליטל (December 13, 2008). "שמואל ברו חולם את הדבר הנכון". www.makorrishon.co.il. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- ^ Sanders, Edmund (2009-08-10). "Ethiopian Israeli filmmaker pulls no punches". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- ^ WYBIER, LAURE (July 2, 2009). "The Ethiopian 'Spike Lee'". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- ^ "Transfax Film Productions – C.V. Shmuel Beru - Director". www.transfax.co.il. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
- Lyons, Leonard (2007). The Ethiopian Jews of Israel: Personal Stories of Life in the Promised Land. Jewish Lights Pub. ISBN 978-1-58023-323-1.
- Segnalazioni cinematografiche 2009 secondo semestre (in Italian). Effata Editrice IT. 2009. ISBN 978-88-7402-555-8.
- דובדבני, שמוליק (2015-04-13). ""עלים אדומים": אתיופי, איזה יופי". Ynet (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- Klein, Uri (April 20, 2015). "מה אפשר ללמוד על העלייה האתיופית מהסרט "עלים אדומים"". הארץ (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- "Zrubavel: Ethiopian-Israeli Film to Premiere in New York at Tadias Magazine". January 26, 2009. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
External links
- Shmuel Beru at IMDb
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