Exodus

Pharaoh, the leader of Dreamland, which is a sort of restricted ghetto surrounded by a huge wall, declares war on society’s ‘undesirables’. Drug abusers, refugees, criminals and the homeless are all considered equally worthless and confined to Dreamland. When Moses learns he was adopted by Pharaoh and is actually the son of an asylum seeker, he shuns his life of privilege to lead the ghetto’s inhabitants in a revolt against his father.
Exodus, Penny Woolcock’s latest feature film, was made in the English coastal town of Margate (Kent). Hundreds of locals were put to work in making the film.
There was a lot of risk-taking involved in making Exodus, not uncommon with Penny Woolcock, whose films are generally characterized by a strong social conscience and an eye for the social, cultural and political life on Britain’s toughest housing estates. The non-professional acting and the importance of place in combination with the ambitious storytelling (based on the Old Testament) make for a very intense and sometimes ambiguous viewing experience of life on the margins where humour, invention and resourcefulness are never far away. (EH)