Children by Remote Control by Nachum Landau is a fascinating and sensitive documentary look at foreign workers in a foreign land.
Landau watches up close a group of Thai workers and focuses on how they cope with leaving their children far behind. According to Israeli law, the foreign workers are not permitted to bring their children with them to Israel. Dreaming of a better life after they earn some money working in Israel, they leave their children behind and continue their ties with them through phone calls and letters. They are paying a heavy price for the right to work as a foreigner in Israel.
What motivates these people to be so far from their children whom they love? In order to answer this question, the filmmaker decides to accompany one of the Thai couples on their return trip home, in order to see for himself the problem from the other side. As he is traveling with this couple, he can feel the distance that has been created between the children and the parents. Quite openly, the teenagers say that they would rather have their parents than having the car and education that the money they are earning can buy.
We can only hope that time will heal the wounds.
The film is 51 minutes in length and is available from the filmmaker, Nachum Landau, at nachum@saad.org.il
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