Long Distance

There are an estimated 300,000 foreign workers in Israel. Long Distance (the Hebrew title, “sichat chutz,” means “a foreign conversation, a talk outside”) tells the story of four of them: a Filipino man and woman, a Ghanaian woman and a Turkish man. Working variously as caretakers, a cleaning lady and a construction worker, the small details of their lives in Tel Aviv reveal themselves, in this moving and formally precise film, through phone calls back home. As attempts to maintain ties with loved ones left behind and not seen for years, these conversations become lifelines allowing the subjects to express their fears, anxieties and longings. Rosemarie S. Dela Cruz, for instance, always uses the same words to end her conversations with her young son in the Philippines: “I love you. I miss you. God be with you always,” transmitting across the seas the expression of hope and affection in equal measure to her isolation and hardship.