IGN.com|AskMen.com|Rotten Tomatoes|GameSpy|FilePlanet|TeamXbox|CheatsCodesGuides|GameStats|Direct2Drive

RottenTomatoes.com

Register | Log In | What is RT?
It's our 10th birthday, so you get presents!
Home Movies DVD Celebrities News Critics Photos & Trailers The Vine Forums
Box Office | Best Of | Certified Fresh | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
 
MOVIES / ON DVD / ANOTHER ROAD HOME
Another Road Home

Rate This Movie

Write a Review
Share This Movie
Add to List
Buy Poster

Bookmark and Share

Another Road Home (2005)

78%
100%
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
78 %
Reviews Counted: 27 Fresh: 21  Rotten:6 Average Rating: 7/10
 
Consensus: This deeply personal, yet political, documentary about Israeli/Palestinian relations is quietly moving.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 79 mins

Synopsis: "In ANOTHER ROAD HOME, Danae Elon illuminates both the personal and the political as she explores the relationship of two families, one Israeli and the other Palestinian. A powerful and moving achievement." --Joan Didion, Author "You always used to iron my army uniform!" is something a... "In ANOTHER ROAD HOME, Danae Elon illuminates both the personal and the political as she explores the relationship of two families, one Israeli and the other Palestinian. A powerful and moving achievement." --Joan Didion, Author "You always used to iron my army uniform!" is something a child would say to a parent. In fact, it is an exclamation of wonder by Israeli filmmaker Danae Elon to Mahmoud "Musa" Obeidallah, the Palestinian man who had been her caregiver, and who was, in two decades with the Elon family, more like a third parent to her. It is a statement that lies at the crux of her documentary, ANOTHER ROAD HOME. The film chronicles the deeply personal story of an Israeli woman's quest to find her Palestinian caregiver, and places a human face on a situation that most of us are acquainted with only through troubling headlines. Danae notes, "Our hearts and lives are shaped by the people that have always surrounded us, those who have nourished and loved us. Musa became part of our family, part of the way I formed my perception and grew to understand my surroundings; no war could take that away from me." This hopeful message informs every frame of ANOTHER ROAD HOME. Shortly after the Six-Day War in 1967, Danae's Jewish parents, the famous author Amos Elon, and former literary agent Beth Elon, hired Musa Obeidallah, the Muslim father of eleven children, to take care of their six-month old daughter on a daily basis. Musa commuted from Palestine to his job in Jerusalem for the next twenty years, until Danae moved to New York to study at NYU Film School. Education was also on Musa's mind. With the money he earned, he sent his sons to study and make their careers in America. Against the mounting tensions of the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian Intifada, the two families lost track of each other for ten years. During this time, Danae realized how much of an influence Musa had on her, and that she needed to revisit her past and find this remarkable man. ANOTHER ROAD HOME takes her from her current home in New York to an Arab-American neighborhood in New Jersey, to the Palestinian village of Battir in the occupied territories, and back to her birthplace in Jerusalem. This evocative film brings to life a story that is both heartwarming and painful as it confronts the frictions and affection shared by Danae and Musa's sons; between the Obeidallah family and the Elon family; between Danae and her parents. Exploring the delicate boundaries between family, class, and politics with unsentimental acuity seasoned by deep affection, director Danae Elon illuminates not only the often troubled political heritage shared by these two families, but a hope for the future in her quest to find ANOTHER ROAD HOME. [More]

Genre: Education/General Interest

Reviews

 
T-Meter Critics
 
 
Top Critics
 
 
RT Community
 
 
My Critics
 
 
My Friends
 
 
DVD
 
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
Arrange By: Name | Fresh | Rotten | Date | Source
 
 
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
02/09/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
08/16/07
Trevor Johnston
Time Out New York
Ratings Image
B+

... a film that handles tragic ironies lightly and offers simple hope in lieu of policy prescriptions.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/30/05
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ratings Image
3/4

'From the milk we drank together, something of my blood, my life is in you,' Musa tells Danae, and explains more about this moving portrait than any political debate could.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/21/05
Ted Fry
Seattle Times
Ratings Image
C

Amounts to little more than pictures from a family album.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/20/05
Bill White
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
09/26/05
Onion AV Club
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
2/4

It's a documentary of Upstairs Downstairs dimension.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/15/05
Laura Kelly
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Ratings Image
2.5/4

[The filmmaker] veers into self-indulgence, but Obeidallah's drive to give his kids a better life - even at the risk of abandoning their homeland - is touching.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/19/05
Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune
Ratings Image
B

Becomes an odd companion piece to the stunning Capturing the Friedmans, one of the most disturbing chronicles of family dysfunction ever documented.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/23/05
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ratings Image
3.5/4

Slim, heartbreaking film.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/17/05
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Ratings Image
C+

The man at its heart is a 76-year-old Palestinian named Musa, and if he and we are never quite sure what the movie is truly about it's still a pleasure to make his acquaintance.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/10/05
Tom Long
Detroit News
Ratings Image
3/4

Elon uses quiet and silence to great effect.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/10/05
John Monaghan
Detroit Free Press
Ratings Image
2/4

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
06/10/05
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3/4

Layered, loving and deeply personal.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/09/05
Allison Benedikt
Chicago Tribune
Ratings Image
3/5

Compelling with its inside-out look at the crisis of the Middle-East, even if there is a fair bit of narcissism involved.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/05/05
Tim Cogshell
Boxoffice Magazine
Ratings Image
3/4

Though, at times a bit incomplete, this documentary is still quite endearing, engaging and extremely educational in matters of politics and heart.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/02/05
Ross Anthony
Hollywood Report Card
Ratings Image
3/4

Elon shines a light on Israeli-Palestinian relations in ways that are profound, human and hopeful.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/21/05
Glenn Whipp
Los Angeles Daily News
Ratings Image
N/A

A work of powerful humanism that could unsettle entrenched points of view.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/21/05
Sheri Linden
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

Elon presumably intends to send a positive message about individual relationships transcending politics, but the film leaves too much unsaid to do so.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/13/05
Nicole Arthur
Washington Post
Ratings Image
N/A

Full of heart-rending moments, in which people of good faith search for answers to what, in the end, remain painfully irreconcilable questions.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/13/05
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
See More Topics...

Related Forums

Darko, Donnie
ANOTHER ROAD HOME - Danae Elon's documentary gets a well-deserved USA release ...
by: Darko, Donnie 10/25/05

Around the Network

• Another Road Home at Rotten Tomatoes
• Another Road Home at AskMen
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | ModCenter | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2008, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.