Nadav Lapid‘s Ahed’s Knee is a big whatever. It did however make me wonder about the dynamic he had with his late mother — for whom this film is dedicated to. Otherwise, this is pretentious stuff and the kind of film that may be getting raved about at Cannes, but will quickly be forgotten come its release date.
A very autobiographical film for Lapid (think 8 1/ or Stardust Memories) the Israeli director is the central character here, a successful movie director, played by Avshalom Pollak, who has just had a great hit at the Berlin film festival (“Synonym” won the top prize there in 2019). Prepping for his next film, this one about a Palestinian activist named Ahed, the director accepts to take a break and attend a government-sponsored special screening about his last film in his hometown of Arava. He flirts with the librarian host (played by Nur Fibak) and recalls past memories of serving in the army and shooting film. These scenes represent the best the film has to offer, the sexual tension is palpable and their chemistry effervescent.
The second half is more problematic. Our lead’s psyche starts to deteriorate, the political activist in him awakened, which leads to unending monologuing that would rather explain than show his mental state. The camerawork, filled with swirls, crashes, loops, is, however, great throughout.
I find that with this and “Synonyms”, Lapid is starting to become a little too neurotic with his cinematic influences. This is very much inspired by French New Wave cinema post-1965. A very political and in-your-face diatribe of his home country. If he showed great promise, aided by an unaware naïveté, in “Policeman” and “The Kindergarten Teacher,” Lapid is starting to enter a very dangerous and pretentious phase in his career. The Golden Bear win at Berlin may have boosted his ego a bit too much, to the point of ad nauseum. [C]
It gives me no pleasure to report that this is one of the worst films of Schrader’s career. Wooden acting, Jack Huston and Sofia Boutella are badly miscast, the script is dull, the photography is flat; nothing works.