Synonyms
57th New York Film Festival
September 27 - October 13, 2019
Disillusioned Israeli Yoav (Tom Mercier), who has absconded to Paris following his military training and has disavowed Hebrew, falls into an emotional and intellectual triangle with a wealthy bohemian couple in Nadav Lapid’s powerful film about language and physicality, masculinity and nationhood.
Must end November 21!
In his lacerating third feature, director Nadav Lapid’s camera races to keep up with the adventures of peripatetic Yoav (Tom Mercier), a disillusioned Israeli who has absconded to Paris following his military training. Having disavowed Hebrew, he devotes himself to learning the intricacies of the French language, falls into an emotional and intellectual triangle with a wealthy bohemian couple (Quentin Dolmaire and Louise Chevillotte), and frequently finds himself objectified, both politically and sexually. A powerful expression of the impossibility of escaping one’s roots, Synonyms is, even after the unforgettable Policeman (NYFF48) and The Kindergarten Teacher, Lapid’s boldest and most haunting work yet, a film about language and physicality, masculinity and nationhood. A Kino Lorber release. An NYFF57 selection.
Check out conversations with Lapid on Synonyms at the 57th NYFF below.
Brilliant. Relentless. Comic. Tragic.
—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Astonishing, maddening, brilliant, hilarious, obstinate, and altogether unmissable.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Deliriously unpredictable... audacious. Breathtaking in the way it careens from one scene to the next in a whirlwind of personal and political meaning.
—Jay Weissberg, Variety
Intense, feverish, unhinged, deranged, digressive, implacable, impressive. A unique and bristling take on the Paris experience.
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
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