Synonyms. 2019. France/Israel/Germany. Directed by Nadav Lapid. Screenplay by Nadav Lapid, Haim Lapid. With Tom Mercier, Quentin Dolmaire, Louise Chevillotte. In French, Hebrew; English subtitles. 123 min.
“Brilliant. Relentless. Comic. Tragic.” So begins Manohla Dargis’s New York Times review of this extraordinarily personal new film by Nadav Lapid (Policeman, The Kindergarten Teacher), which uses a young Israeli’s self-imposed exile in Paris to consider the forces of language and (mis)translation, nationalism, sexuality, violence, and forgetfulness in the painstaking struggle to belong. As the filmmaker’s alter ego, Tom Mercier (remember this name) gives one of the most hypnotic performances of the year. Courtesy Kino Lorber.