Nadav Lapid represents the new wave of israeli cinema. A wave against the current, since his films are not liked by the high political circles of his country. The last one, ‘Ahed’s knee’is presented this Thursday at the festival day.
The story is based on an experience lived by the director: «I was invited to a town in the desert to present one of my films, ‘The kindergarten teacher’. Someone very kind from the ministry gave me a document about what he could or could not say », explains the director.
This situation, the weight of bureaucracy and the fascination of the desert they began to boil in his imagination. “I took photos of the desert and sent them to my mother. She had a very serious cancer and she passed away a year and a half ago », she recalls. was lapid she was the editor of her son’s previous works, in the same way as his father, Haimhas participated in the script of some.
The death of the mother caused what the filmmaker defines as «a vital response. After three weeks I began to write. I didn’t have a clear idea, but I did have the urgency. I finished the script in 15 days, compared to the two years it took for ‘Synonyms’». ‘Ahed’s knee’, with an agitated, swaying staging, was born with a very strong feeling of confronting two ideas, the carnal mother and the mother country.
“Israel is a nation that faces constant leaps into the dark,” Lavid argues. And what was the response to a film that so vehemently questions the bureaucracy of the system and the loss of freedoms?: «It was initially perceived at different levels. There was public interest for having been in Cannes, winning the jury prize and having distribution outside the country. It was kind of a national celebration.”
“From Hero to Traitor”
But things went wrong. According to Lavid, “the controversy began over the direct attack on the film and me by politicians and the media They hadn’t even seen it. I went from hero to traitorto be the shame of the country and to question why the State financed this type of film».
Lavid is used to receiving harsh criticism in Israel, but in this case “they were brutal, I felt very distressed, I didn’t want to face nine million Israelis». Fortunately, on the other hand, the filmmaker began to receive favorable reactions from the public, “people who wrote me very long messages in favor of the film, people who perceived an existential portrait rather than a political manifesto.”
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‘Synonyms’ told the story of a young Hebrew who settles in Paris and wants to get rid of his Israeli nationality. The controversy has always accompanied him, although he justifies that in that previous film «the protagonist is a young boy and he still has time to mature, he is in Paris, the film is in another language, it was perceived as a more foreign film. On the contrary, the last is filmed in Israel, spoken in Hebrewthe protagonist is more mature».
For Lavid, it is the same as whether a film is Hollywood, European or independent. The only thing is “the urgency, the uniqueness, the risk, using the full potential of the creative medium.” And he concludes: «Filmmakers must be on the barricades».