Film Review: Synonyms
© SBS Films
By Erik Nielsen
Nadav Lapid’s new film Synonyms is a dizzying, maddening and hilarious venture into the psyche of disillusioned Israeli solider attempting to shed his past to find a new way to fit into the place he’s ventured to - Paris. He learns the new language by carrying around a dictionary and repeating every word and its synonyms so he can properly express himself. The use of synonyms is the perfect way to talk about someone who is seeking citizenship in another country, only to find out, being a patriot for Israel may not be that different from being a patriot for Paris.
In one of the more hazy and hectic opening shots in recent memory, Yoav (Tom Mercier) comes running through the streets of Paris with nothing more than the clothes on his back. The camera spins around the rainy concrete as if he’s just been born from and therefor has no memory. He rustles into an abandoned apartment, content with the fact there’s no furniture, only a bath where he can wash. He passes out in the tub, appearing nearly dead, only to be woken when the bohemian couple next door - Emile (a writer) and Coraline (the oboe player) - find him because he's left the door open. They drag him into their home, dress him up in new clothes - a yellow peacoat that he sports like a new uniform in every scene - and give him money. “What’re you going to be?” asks Emile, “French” is Yoav’s response.
© SBS Films
Newcomer Tom Mercier is brilliant and engaging as the persecuted runaway. He seems alien to the couple and almost impossible to read. Yoav’s bulgy eyes are always irritated but focused. He seems devoid of all emotion except rage and you wonder if his surreal stories of the Israeli army are true and how bored the couple must be because they seem so desperate to believe him. The couple is used to dismantle the idea of masculinity, as a love triangle between the three ensues. The filmmaker takes Mercier’s chiseled physique and uses it against him, subjecting Yoav to an audiences gaze and then humiliating him while he’s naked.
The film is strung together by a series of seemingly random encounters. It’s more a stream of consciousness play then it is a movie with a legible plot. Yoav whores himself out to a security firm, an embassy for the Israeli and an artist who wants Yoav to model. The scenes with another disillusioned soldier - who he meets at the firm - are terrifying and the perfect counter to his perspective. Unlike Yoav, he’s proud of his Jewish heritage and will fight for it. He stares people down on the streets and subways, longing for a battle. He wants the fact that he's Jewish to be invoked so he can react violently.
© SBS Films
Lapid is a talented director and craftsman, bringing kinetic energy to every scene with his rapid-fire camera movements. He’s also willing to embarrass his protagonist. A lot of the humor comes from his mistaken definitions and his ferocious inability to successfully have normal encounters with the people he comes across. But, it’s also struggling with the idea of being a Jew and attempting to understand why he has to be Israeli. Yoav never wants to speak Hebrew again, hopeful that forgetting one language and replacing it with a new one will help him understand the new self he wishes to create. He even ignores his father, who desperately wants to see him. He refuses to have a conversation with him when their paths cross because he doesn’t want to be reminded of what he once was or speak his native tongue.
© SBS Films
The film takes a turn in the third act where the wild, unpredictability of Yoav’s encounters is supplanted by the romance between him and Caroline (albeit a little predictable here) but also, the mundane activities of becoming a French citizen. He stands tall in the citizenship class, yelling the French National Anthem, reminding us of the vitriol he must’ve had when he fought for the Israeli army. He becomes hypnotized by the questions he’s asked and begins to shout what he learns at the passersby in the street. “Do you even know what it is to be French?”, he screams.
When we finally reach the end, we’re not even sure if the film wants us to like Yoav or empathize with his struggle of national identity. This speaks volumes to the directors’ own experiences as someone who described himself as “Being born mistakenly in the Middle East.”. He’s pushed himself to a limit and by doing so, forced the people who wanted to help him, leave. It begs to question and wants to know, does a national identity truly inform who we are?
