Synonyms

The winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Festival. Strongly inspired by the experiences of the director himself, Nadav Lapid, this is the story of a young Israeli trying to adapt to life as an immigrant in Paris. Although Yoav quickly befriends a couple of eccentric neighbors and members of the Israeli diaspora, he still feels uncomfortable in his new surroundings. The protagonist’s alienation manifests itself first and foremost in terms of language—something the director takes advantage of by sprinkling numerous puns, experiments and verbal games throughout the story, thus earning Synonyms a comparison with the early works of Godard. The film is also marked by a certain nonchalance, unpredictability and clownish, anarchist humor seemingly borrowed straight from the world of Breathless. The fact that Synonyms is a movie for cinephiles is something the director himself has highlighted. Upon receiving the Golden Bear, Lapid described his film as a humanistic, existential and artistic manifesto that is also a celebration of cinematic art.