Duki Dror’s documentary “Across the River” follows Moshe Rachamim as he searches for a way to prevent the spread of AIDS in the Israeli Ethiopian community. Tsegaw Mahari (Mahari, which means “compassion” in Amharic, translates into “rachamim” in Hebrew) was born in the small village of Guluth in Ethiopia, separated from the surrounding communities by a river. The children were forbidden to cross the river and eat or drink in the homes of the nearby villages, for they were Jewish and expected to keep kosher. Rachamim crossed the river and kept on walking, immigrating alone to Israel in 1973 at the age of 12.
