Ahed's Knee
2021 film by Nadav Lapid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ahed's Knee (Hebrew: הַבֶּרֶךְ, romanized: Habereḵ, lit. 'The Knee') is a 2021 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Nadav Lapid.[3] It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.[4][5] At Cannes, the film shared the Jury Prize with Memoria by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.[6][7]
Talia Kleinhendler
Judith Lou Lévy
Ève Robin
Nur Fibak
| Ahed's Knee | |
|---|---|
Festival poster | |
| הַבֶּרֶךְ | |
| Directed by | Nadav Lapid |
| Written by | Nadav Lapid |
| Produced by | Osnat Handlesman-Keren Talia Kleinhendler Judith Lou Lévy Ève Robin |
| Starring | Avshalom Pollak Nur Fibak |
| Cinematography | Shai Goldman |
| Edited by | Nili Feller |
Production companies | Les Films du Bal Pie Films Komplizen Film GmbH |
| Distributed by | Pyramide Distribution (France) |
Release date |
|
| Countries | Israel France Germany |
| Language | Hebrew |
| Box office | $219,878[1][2] |
Synopsis
"Y" (Avshalom Pollak), a film director, is working on a new film about Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi. He travels to the Arava desert to attend a screening of one of his films at a local library, a government institution. There he meets Yahalom (Nour Fibak), an official from the Ministry of Culture. She explains he needs to sign a form that defines the subject of his appearance at the screening, a form that offers him a checklist of topics acceptable to the government all of which reflect its right-wing ideology and antipathy to criticism. Y becomes close to Yahalom while exploring how to use her sympathy for a more liberal approach to culture and speech to attack the government's agenda.
Cast
- Avshalom Pollak as Y
- Nur Fibak as Yahalom
- Yoram Honig as the farmer
- Yonathan Kugler as the young Y
- Lidor Ederi as Narkis
- Amit Shoshani as the fearful soldier
- Yehonatan Vilozny as the sergeant
- Naama Preis as the casting director
- Ortal Solomon as Ahed 1
- Mili Eshet as Ahed 2
- Oded Menaster as Smotrich
- Netta Roth as the young actor
Release
The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, it had its premiere on 7 July 2021 in the festival. It was also selected in 'Icon' section of 26th Busan International Film Festival and was screened in the festival in October 2021.[8] It was invited in the Soul of Asia section at the 52nd International Film Festival of India for screening in November.[9]
The film was inspired by the story of Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi.[10]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 75% of 59 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "An occasionally uneasy blend of human drama and message movie, Ahed's Knee forcefully reaffirms that the personal is political."[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[12]