Brad Rothschild, a movie producer and scriptwriter who produced a movie about the fate of Darfur refugees in Israel after infiltration from the Egyptian border to Israel, worked for six years as a business development manager at Citi Bank when suddenly, in his mid-thirties, he successfully changed his career from banker to the cinema world.

            In case you are wondering how Rothschild made such a transition without training in movie production or scriptwriting, the answer is that Rothschild utilized his writing skills. Even though he received his Bachelor’s Degree in politics in Atlanta, and his Masters Degree in International Relations at Columbia University, two careers that are not connected to writing, Rothschild used his writing skills when writing speeches for Israeli officials in New York. One of them was for the counsel to the UN, Gar Yakovi, another was for Yitzhak Rabin, when Itan Habar asked Rothschild to help him write the speech that Rabin read in early Fall 1995 in a ceremony celebrating 50 years of the United Nations. As the years went by, Rothschild married and fathered three kids. He was convinced that he would remain at Citi Group for the duration of his professional life, but life had different plans for him. The person who pushed him towards the cinema business was his teacher in light comedy, a workshop he took at the writing school Gotham. About a year and a half ago, Rothschild told his teacher, Michael Aldridge, about the script he had written. Even though the action story sounded a little worn out – an Israeli soldier that is released from the Israeli Defense Forces’ service comes to New York to study and falls in love with a Palestinian woman – Aldridge loved the idea, decided to produce the movie, and even brought in his own production group. Thus, a week after the second war with Lebanon came to an end, Rothschild and Aldridge traveled to Israel for a visit and filmed a few scenes for the action movie. Upon their return, they decided to start their own production company together, and started searching for additional projects. This search led them to the  Darfur Refugees project. “One day, one of my wife’s cousins called me”, Itan Shvarts (the former ambassador of Goy Lo), softly recalled, “and told me that he and others had established an organization for Darfur refugees who had escaped to Israel. He said that a terrific documentary film could be produced on this topic. I told Michael, and he said ‘let’s do it’, and last February, I took a cameraman and traveled to Israel.” When he arrived, Rothschild started the search for traces of the refugees in Israel. He traveled to Eilat, where refugees work in the hotels, visited kibbutzim where the refugees had jobs, and even visited the prisons where some were held. He learned that 450 illegal Sudanese refugees came to Israel escaping from the great massacre in Sudan, and that 250 of them were recently freed from prison in Israel. He discovered that thousands of Sudanese refugees are currently living in Egypt under difficult conditions. Rothschild decided that in order to complete the movie, he would need to travel to both countries to film.  He intends to act on this plan soon.

Rothschild: “I met a refugee from Sudan who was shot in the foot three years ago. He told me that someone picked him up and put him on a donkey that took him to one of the villages. Since then, he has not seen his wife or eight children who left together with him but escaped in a different direction. From the villages he continued to Hartom, from there to Cairo and to El Arish.  He walked all the way to Israel.”

Where did you find the refugees from Sudan in Israel?

“I met men that work in agriculture at the kibbutzim, but cannot leave since they are there on certain conditions.  I met mothers with little children who lost their husbands. I also visited a prison the day two refugees were being released.  They were happy to be released; I drove them in my car to the moshav they were sent to. I met a boy that wrote about the holocaust to Eli Weisel, and received a response. I met an adolescent that works at an ice cream stand in Yotvata.  I found adolescents from Sudan surfing the Internet, including a sixteen-year-old boy who wants to undergo conversion and become an Israeli. Many of the refugees have stories about lost parents or brothers.”

What do they think of Israel?

”Many of them know of the Jewish holocaust, and expect Israel to help them. On the other hand, I met some refugees that did not know who the Jews were. Many of them knew Israel is a Jewish state that has certain conflicts with the Arabs. One told me that since the Israelis are educated people they treat us better.”

During Tikkun Shavuot a clip from the movie was screened at a Dor Chadash event at the 92nd Street Y; what were the reactions?

“Even though I did not hear anyone cry, I felt that many want to help these people. The issue of Tikkun is immensely strong among us.”