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About The Film

In south Tel Aviv, high schoolers in the Alley Athletes running club excel at meets, winning medals and national rankings. But their victories are not officially recognized or recorded because their families are asylum seekers in Israel—mostly from Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea—without legal status or citizenship, some of the over 50,000 Africans in Israel. While running was just a social activity at first for these students on the margins of Israeli society, it quickly becomes a struggle for civil rights, to avoid deportation, and even offering opportunities for citizenship. The young Jewish, Muslim, and Christian runners, all now conversant in Hebrew, navigate Israeli bureaucracy together with their caring Israeli coach and civics teacher, who champions their strides and comforts crushing setbacks. Will they break the barrier at the finish line?

Freedom Runners posterjpg

Film Details:

Original Title: Ratsim lahofesh
Director: David Wachsmann
Country: Israel/Sweden
Language: Hebrew w/subtitles 
Running Time: 50m
Year: 2016
Genre: Documentary

Subjects:

  • Refugees
  • Africans
  • Sports
  • Youth
  • Civil rights

Rating/Warning: PG

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