Simcha Jacobovici Movies

Producer Ric Esther Bienstock blows the lid off of a multi-billion dollar underground industry by exposing the global sex trade in women from the former Soviet Bloc. The fastest growing form of crime in Eastern Europe, according to the International Herald Tribune, human trafficking is often misunderstood, and widely tolerated. Sex Slaves takes viewers to Moldolva and Ukraine, where traffickers frequently take advantage of desperate women seeking to travel abroad and earn a decent living. By telling the tale of a Ukrainian husband named Viotel, the filmmakers put a human face on an inhuman act. Viotel's pregnant wife has just fallen victim to traffickers in Turkey. Now, in order to find and rescue the mother of his unborn child, Viotel -- a loving husband -- must pose as a human trafficker. His only lead is the phone number of the pimp whom he believes currently has his wife. As Viotel attempts to follow the trail of treachery and purchase his wife back, hidden cameras track his every move. Interwoven with Viotel's story are interviews with the victims, traffickers, and families that have been affected by the trade in human flesh. Additional visits to England and Canada reveal that sex trafficking isn't restricted to the villages of Moldova and Ukraine, but often occurs in major cities throughout the modern world. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In the waning days of 1941, a converted yacht called the Struma carried 769 Romanian Jews fleeing Ion Antonescu's brutal Nazi-supported regime from the Black Sea coastal town of Constanta to British-controlled Palestine. After only a couple days out to sea, the ship developed engine trouble and was forced to harbor in Istanbul's harbor. For two months a complicated political and diplomatic struggle ensued between Germany, Turkey, Britain, the Soviet Union. Eventually, the harried passengers where herded on board and towed into the Black Sea. A day later, it was torpedoed and all but one passenger died. Documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, whose grandparents were among those killed on the ship, recounts the doomed journey of the Struma and its mysterious end. He follows British diver Greg Buxton's attempts at fining the wreck and interviews Turkish officials about the matter, delves into mid-century geopolitics, and explores the German-Turkish chromium trade during the 1940s. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

The tragic plight of Ethiopian Jews (Falashas) takes center stage in this well-researched and moving documentary by Simcha Jacobovici. The Falashas ("exiles") have lived for over 2,000 years in this region and are vastly outnumbered in a state that is half Muslim, with Christians making up the next largest religious group (Jews are too minor a group, less than 1%, to figure in statistics). But the discrimination arises from politics: Jews were massacred after the 1974 Marxist military coup -- not by the Marxists, but by their opposition, because they feared the Falashas would support the government. They are also prosecuted by the Marxists who fear Judaism stops them from supporting the government. In interviews with Jews living in distant villages, stories of torture and murder at the hands of Ethiopian authorities are told in all their tragedy, and the Falashas in the Sudanese refugee camps were afraid to be photographed. Meanwhile, Israel says it is "doing everything it can" to help the Falashas, while Jewish agencies in North America claim that Israel is doing next to nothing in that regard. In the end it becomes very clear that the Falashas suffer from a double stigma: they are both black and Jewish. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide