REVIEWS Footnote REVIEWED BYDAN FAINARU
Pungent and ironic, Josef Cedar’s follow-up to his award-winning Beaufort is a smart, well-written and deftly executed confrontation between a father and son who are more alike than they would choose to believe. Both are academics, both dedi- cated to the specialist field of Talmudic research, studying sacred texts on Jewish law and culture. Each man represents a different generation and approach, but both are desperately keen to be rec- ognised for their work. Though possibly too ascetic for multiplex
crowds and rather difficult to follow for audiences who are not familiar with academic bickering and philological refinements, Footnote (Hearat Shu- layim) should do well for Sony Classics, which has acquired the film here in Cannes. It is likely to go down well with selective audiences in the US, and will be natural arthouse fare and festival fodder. Eliezer Shkolnik — played by popular comic
Shlomo Bar Aba, remarkable in an uncharacteris- tic role — is a grim, dedicated purist who all his life has been preparing an introduction to a much annotated version of the Jerusalem Talmud. For years he has been ignored as a candidate for the country’s highest honour, the Israel Prize, and he expresses his resentment by spitefully putting down the winners and their achievements.
COMPETITION
Isr. 2011. 105mins Director/screenplay Josef Cedar Production companies United King Films, Movie Plus International sales West End Films, www.
westendfilms.com Producers David Mandil, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery Cinematography Yaron Scharf Editor Einat Glaser-Zarhin Production designer Arad Sawat Music Amit Poznansky Main cast Shlomo Bar Aba, Lior Ashkenazi, Alisa Rosen, Alma Zak, Daniel Markovich, Micah Lewensohn
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Prize, with the father’s academic nemesis, Profes- sor Grossman (Lewensohn) involved up to his neck in the proceedings. Some of the conflicts in the film will be less evi-
dent to those outside Israel than to Israelis, only too familiar with the traditional arguments, gos- sips and squabbling around the Israel Prizes, with unsatisfied candidates bypassed by the selection committees, exposing their complaints and aggravation in the media. But Cedar deals with the material in a humor-
ous — at times sardonic — way, while the imagi- nation and skill of editor Einat Glaser-Zarhin helps move the story briskly forward. Their suc- cess at tackling the stuffy themes with a light touch should keep the audience on board. As the main crisis finally erupts, Bar Aba’s
His son, Uriel — Lior Ashkenazi in a successful
departure from his macho roles — has followed in his father’s path but is far more communicative and easygoing. This gives the father all the more reason to consider his son a lightweight in his pro- fession, incapable of serious research. In the opening scene, the edgy Eliezer attends a
ceremony honouring Uriel, establishing the tensions in their relationship. Things only get worse as they are mixed up in an imbroglio around the impending annual distribution of the Israel
studied, surly performance and Ashkenazi’s increasing restlessness carry Cedar’s script effi- ciently. The build-up to the distribution of the supreme awards is almost hallucinatory. However, it leads to an inconclusive ending that some will find disappointing — others, though, will rightly praise its restraint. Cedar, in what is probably his top achievement
to date, delivers a rather unique combination of original satire and serious drama, conveying, once the laughter fades, a bitter aftertaste which will linger for a long time.
SCREEN SCORE ★★★
n 18 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 15, 2011
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