The promised land

In The Promised Land, what begins as a search for a better life by a group of Jewish immigrants in the mid 1800s becomes the embodiment of the longing - physical, familial, and spiritual - we all feel for a home. Yitzhak, the renegade son of an Orthodox rabbi in the shtetls of Poland, flees to the New World with his young wife, Chana, to escape religious persecution and suspicion about his powerful charisma and fervent beliefs. Settling with his followers under the patronage of a wealthy family in the mercantile splendor of golden-age St Louis, Yitzhak is driven by recurring visions to lead his family and his flock on a perilous trek west. It is on this adventure - filled with Indians, settlers, religious zealots, true believers, and all of the dangers and grandeur of the American wilderness - that Yitzhak's faith is tried and Chana's more pragmatic beliefs are tested against both the journey and its surprising resolution.