The Israeli film, "James' Journey to Jerusalem," opens with an illustrated storyboard of the eponymous hero's epic journey from his African village to the Holy Land. An enchanting song accompanies the images, luring us into the utopian, Christian views motivating the village to send its representative on this pilgrimage: "Jerusalem Jerusalem, Jerusalem you are our only destiny." When we encounter the talented Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe playing James, his naive gaze of hope and wonder on a poster of Jerusalem is unforgettable. Yet can there be any doubt that James, locked into the collective fantasy of his people, will suffer a precipitous fall from lofty spiritual expectations to the hard reality of everyday life?

Indeed, James and the hopes of his village suffer an immediate and irrevocable setback: the immigration officer, whose crass and cynical views provide a striking contrast to the idealism of James and his people, does not believe him: "This story about the Holy Land," she says, "we have heard 300,000 times. I know you are here to make money."

James' journey is paved with his good intentions, yet he finds that the profane world of consumer capitalism blocks him at every turn from fulfilling his spiritual longings. James' path, like that of travelers from Odysseus to Dante, is strewn with dangerous obstacles. Yet here we find no song of the sirens to at least sweeten the imagination, nor do we find, as in "The Divine Comedy," that the bliss of heaven awaits the weary pilgrim. James' quest runs head-on into a world in which everyone is consumed by petit-bourgeois pleasures like gambling, (cheating at) backgammon, or shopping for televisions and cell phones. Once James becomes part of this world, we fear he can never turn back. But would he even want to? We cannot be sure, since the African village he has left behind has an air of unreality about it; the static, cartoon rendering of it is the stuff of first-world fantasy. Poor James, it would seem, is left with a mere fragment of his original optimism. And his village becomes merely a mythical, rather than viable, alternative to modern life.

The film includes an even darker subtext that takes us beyond the challenges confronting immigrants to Israel. Who inspired James' journey to begin with? Who were the missionaries who sold this false bill of goods to his village? Some might fault the film for its asymmetrical representation of Africa and Israel. But I believe the missing piece to the puzzle - the world left behind - can help clarify our own perceptions of the current state of the world. "James' Journey" focuses on the concrete, historical situation of poor immigrants to Israel, but it also leads us to inquire about the hopes and dreams of seekers like James all around the world.

Benjamin Bertram is a professor in the English Department at the University of Southern Maine.

2004 MJFF Program Book edited by Abby Zimet