Synopsis
Transit explores the intersecting stories of Filipinos in Tel Aviv when the threat of a law deporting the children of migrant workers looms over their lives. Janet, a domestic worker on an expired visa, struggles to hide her half Israeli daughter and a nephew who is the most vulnerable to the deportation law because he is under the age of five. Transit examines what it means to be a family and what it means to be a stranger, within one\'s home and in a foreign land.

Program Note
Director Hannah ESPIA chose Israel over her homeland the Philippines as the setting for her debut film. There are Filipinos living
 in Israel in such desperate situations. The Filipino immigrant workers in Israel live in constant fear because once their work visas
 expire they no longer have the right to work there, let alone to remain in the country. Moses came to Israel with his family but
 became a single dad to his son, Joshua after his wife left him for an Israeli man. He works as a home-care nurse and lives with
 Janet who raises her teenage daughter alone by taking on odd menial jobs. Janet’s young relative, Tina who has arrived looking
 for work, live together with them in their precarious home. The Israeli government has passed a law forcing children of overseas
 workers who are below five years of age to be deported back to their homelands. Yael, whose father is Israeli, goes to school and
 embarks on a romance with a local boy; however, she is always confused about her true self. Although Joshua was born in Israel
 like his classmates, he must be deported straightaway if he is discovered by the government officials, no matter how well he can
 recite difficult passages from the Talmud. They live together but find themselves in different situations and have different beliefs.
 To one another they are at once family that seems like strangers and strangers that seem like family. In Israel, where immigrant
 workers face threats of deportation while the promise of settlement is absent, the world must be viewed differently depending on
 what situation one is in. Transit examines the same incident from each person’s point of view. [LEE Angela]