One of the many sad stories from the October 7 massacre is that of the 39 Thai agricultural workers who were murdered by Hamas – several of these brutal murders were captured by the terrorists on video and broadcast to the world – while more than 30 were taken hostage, some of whom were later released.
Not surprisingly, many Thai workers returned to Thailand following the outbreak of the war, but just last week, there were news reports saying that the workers are back in Israel in pre-war numbers.
Many Israelis were surprised following October 7 that there were so many agricultural workers caught up in the carnage. Since most Thais here tend to work in rural areas, urban Israelis are less aware of their existence than of foreign workers from the Philippines, India, or Africa, most of whom work in cities.
So Nir Dvortchin’s documentary Thai-Land is a welcome look at the Thai subculture in Israel.
The film will be shown several times at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and on KAN 11 at a date that has not yet been announced.
It’s one of several movies that premiered at the Docaviv Festival in the spring and are being shown at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque in July.
The movie is told in the fly-on-the-wall documentary style perfected by Frederick Wiseman, where there are no talking heads or titles giving explanations, which gives the film more immediacy, but leaves some questions unanswered. And given that it focuses on a group of Thai workers at the Ein Tamar moshav near the Dead Sea, which is swelteringly hot much of the year, there are many flies on many walls. And feet. And shacks. And plates. And beds.
These workers live in the same kinds of huts that those who were murdered and abducted from the Gaza border area tried in vain to hide in last October, ramshackle structures which of course lack safe rooms, although some were near bomb shelters.
There are many people who pass through this movie, as workers harvest basil and live their lives as best they can the rest of the time. In their downtime, they are often glued to their phones as they keep in touch with children, partners, and parents. No matter how hard their lives in Israel are, they are unlikely to head home anytime soon, because of how desperately their families need the money they send.
Wanting to know more
I would have liked to know a little more about these families, since it’s hard to imagine how poor you would have to be so that the minimum wage the workers earn here could make such a difference to the folks back home.
They work hard, but also have to let off steam, and if the movie has a focus, it’s Ning, a young woman who is supporting her daughter, sending home as much money as she can, but who gets involved in various love affairs and, eventually, gambling.
The Israeli boss, Itzik, spends much of his screen time looking for her when she doesn’t show up to work. Tom is a transgender man who is a devout Buddhist, while another worker dreams of going home to wed his fiancée and make a life with her.
Thai-Land is also a look at the agricultural sector of Israel and how it has become degraded over time. The documentary opens with the founding of Ein Tamar in 1981 by ambitious young Zionists, but then shows how it has become deserted, and the only Israelis we see there are elderly. They miss their families, too, since the younger generation has long ago moved to the center of the country or gone abroad. When they get together, they commiserate about having to pay the workers minimum wage.
At other times, Itzik tries to be friendly and generous, taking the workers to Mount Hermon to see snow or taking part in their New Year’s celebration.
But one problematic aspect of this employer-employee relationship is that the Thais speak little English and have picked up only a few words of Hebrew, so most of their very limited communication comes through translation apps.
So times are tough for everyone on the moshav, and then COVID hits. The moshavnikim sell most of their produce abroad, but planes aren’t flying. Itzik ends up spending his days driving around the center of the country, dropping off boxes of basil at apartments in upscale buildings. The wages go down for the workers, sometimes to as little as NIS 5,000 per month, much less than their families back home say they need.
IN SOME ways, this movie is reminiscent of the 2011 documentary Fat Cows Lean Cows by Meni Elias, a brilliant movie that I don’t think received the attention it deserved, about an elderly Israeli man who ran a dairy in the western Negev with a middle-aged worker from Gaza and a young Thai man. If you come across this movie, it is well worth seeing.
In that movie, we got to watch these characters get to know each other better than do the people in Thai-Land, which is a much sadder film.
Still, Thai-Land is a well-crafted story and beautifully photographed story about two communities whose lives intersect in strange and sad ways.
