Ahed’s knee | The revolt of a filmmaker ★★★½

Invited to a remote village at the end of the desert to accompany the screening of one of his films, an Israeli filmmaker throws himself desperately into two fights lost in advance: that for freedom of expression and that of his mother against the dead.

Marc-Andre Lussier
The Press

Ahed’s kneealso presented in Quebec with English subtitles (Ahed’s Knee), is the fourth feature film by Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, the first after the triumph of Synonymswinner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale three years ago.

Partly autobiographical, the story recounts the journey of a filmmaker at odds with his society, whose need for integrity and absolute mastery of his art leads to an existential crisis that will do damage. Just as Nadav Lapid had done himself when going to present his film The teacher in a village in the Israeli desert a few years ago, the protagonist of the Ahed’s kneebeautifully interpreted by the contemporary dance choreographer Avshalom Pollak, must sign a form intended for the Ministry of Culture, on which are specified the subjects of discussion authorized during the session of questions and answers which will follow the projection.

This form of censorship, juxtaposed with the illness of his mother, who was also his editor, provoked in the filmmaker a reflection that led him to belch in a state of urgency and revolt this brutal and uncompromising film. The staging, sometimes overexcited, is also punctuated by numerous breaks in tone, notably musical, and the gap between the tortured filmmaker and the luminous civil servant who welcomes him to this village lost in the middle of the desert could not be wider. Nor more fatal.

The title of this provocative feature film refers to a young Palestinian activist who was shot in the knee by an Israeli soldier with the intention of preventing her from walking forever. The words that the filmmaker puts in the mouth of his alter ego are at times incredibly violent towards the system established by the Jewish state. The whole film thus takes on the appearance of a kind of intellectual exorcism to which a man lends himself who, as Nadav Lapid himself affirms, is in the process of mourning a mother, but also a country . And it’s very strong.

Winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year, during which a first version of this text was published, Ahed’s knee is now showing.

Indoors

Drama

Ahed’s knee

Nadav Lapid

With Avshalom Pollak, Nur Fibak, Michal Berkovitz Sasu

1 h 50

★★★½