Israel's immigrant wave has personal side in 'The Human Resources Manager'

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Many people don't think of Israel as a multicultural country full of immigrants — lots of them non-Jews from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe — but that reality and its complexities underpin "The Human Resources Manager," the new film from Israeli director Eran Riklis.

"There are thousands of foreign workers in Israel, and they come from all around the world, notably Romania, Thailand, Africa," said Riklis, whose previous films, "The Syrian Bride" and "Lemon Tree," dealt with the conflict between Jews and Palestinians.

"It is a crazy mix of legal immigrants who come to work, but their visa expires after a while and they become illegal," Riklis said by phone from near Tel Aviv. "A lot of them have kids. So we have a second generation of foreign workers, kids who were born and raised here."

Riklis said this phenomenon has "become a huge practical and moral issue" that has sparked a national debate in Israel. "But people like me say, first of all, we are not talking about foreign workers," he added. "We are talking about people. You have to deal with them as people."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-human-resources-20110314,0,4123158.story