“Furious, brilliant.” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times)
Critics are raving about this whirlwind of a film, which won the Golden Bear at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival. In his 20s, Yoav (Tom Mercier), having completed his mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces, is desperate to erase his past and start again. He moves to Paris, where he reluctantly works at the Israeli embassy while studying for his naturalization test—all the while refusing to utter a single word of Hebrew. Synonyms careens from crisis to crisis as Yoav continually tries to reinvent himself. Based on writer-director Nadav Lapid’s own experiences, it is a maddening, astonishing, and stunning film about personal and national identity.
