| Promised Land | |||||
| Native Name: |
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| Director: | Amos Gitaï | ||||
| Producer: | Amos Gitaï, Michael Tapuach | ||||
| Starring: | Rosamund Pike, Diana Bespechni, Hanna Schygulla | ||||
| Music: | Simon Stockhausen | ||||
| Cinematography: | Caroline Champetier | ||||
| Editing: | Yann Dedet, Isabelle Ingold | ||||
| Studio: | Agav Hafekot Agav Productions, MP Productions | ||||
| Distributors: | --> | ||||
| Runtime: | 88 min | ||||
| Country: | France/Israel | ||||
| Language: | Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, English | ||||
Promised Land (Hebrew הארץ המובטחת) is a 2004 French-Israeli film, directed by Amos Gitai and starring Rosamund Pike, Diana Bespechni, and Hanna Schygulla. It tells the story of a group of East European girls smuggled into Israel to serve as prostitutes.[1] The film is the first of Gitai's "Frontier" trilogy and premiered at the Venice Film Festival.[2]
Director Gitai commented on the film: "If I have succeeded in spoiling even one man's appetite, and causing him to stop going to prostitutes - then I feel I have succeeded in doing something."[3]
The film opens at night in the Sinai desert. Under the moonlight, a group of men and women warm themselves around a campfire. Women come from Eastern Europe expecting to work as prostitutes in nice hotels in Egypt. Tomorrow they will suffer rape, humiliation and will be auctioned off by a Frenchwoman named Anne. They will pass from hand to hand, victims of a network of prostitution, eventually being smuggled into Israel to work in a Red Sea resort nightclub.[4]
One night, at the brothel, Diana meets an English woman called Rose. She begs her for help. Their meeting is a sign of hope in the plight of these women.