I saw this film on PBS when it came out in 1997 and I found it was very compelling to watch. To me living history!!!!
I was very scant on Jewish and Arab history in the Middle East pre 1948 before the State of Israel was founded.
I had learned in history that Palestine was originally part of the Ottoman empire and it was lost to the British during World War 1. General Allenby of the British army walked into Jerusalem to receive the surrender of the city as well as the country. The British tried to keep the peace between the Arabs and Jews for about 30 years or so.
During the mandate there were many Jewish groups that wanted more immigration to the Holy Land because of the deteriorating conditions in Europe (the rise to power of the Nazis in 1933) but because of world politics, the immigration was cut back considerably because the British needed Arab oil (one of the reasons anyways).
This film shows the living history of the ship which was named "Exodus" which transported 4500 surviving Jews from the Holocaust in Europe to Palestine. They did not make it because of the British blockade, but the Jewish people tried to win the war through peaceful means by trying to save people rather than by terrorist means of killing the British authority.
This film shows the actual people who manoeuvered the ship Exodus (originally named the President Warfield) and showed all of the trials and tribulations that they encountered. They did not get through the British blockade, but somehow this action struck a nerve in world opinion and it swayed the United Nations to vote for the partition of Palestine into the State of Israel and Palestine.
Actually seeing pictures of the ship and the actual people who were on this ship brought the realism of this situation home to me.
Now I understand part of what the tragedy of the Middle East is and has been and it will take years, if not centuries for the peoples of two different cultures to try to come together to live in peace.
