Abstract
In contemporary, transnational exilic cinema exile an artist is made in an exilic journey. The 21st century journey departs from entirely opposite premises than those of the ancient journey, namely with the desire to escape one’s birthplace. The aim of the exile has also transformed: from a necessary step to secure one’s livelihood or even life, it has become one of exploration. Rather than the desire to settle elsewhere or to eventually return home, the exile sets on an open-ended, exploratory journey the premise of which is finding oneself. In this, the physical journey has come to resemble the metaphysical one of the artist. The exile departs from a physical place and journeys into a metaphysical space, geography becoming secondary while still being necessary. This journey is best recounted in the film Synonymes (2019) by Israeli director Nadav Lapid, an autobiographical tale that chronicles the director’s own exile from Israel to Paris and captures his journey toward becoming an artist. The paper references two prominently antinostalgic authors: 20th century Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz and Polsih-Jewish writer Henryk Grynberg.
Highlights
Nadav’s Lapid autobiographical film Synonymes (2019) is the story of Yoav, an Israeli youth who arrives “in France to flee from Israel,” (Lapid, 2019, 18:15) entirely unaware that he has brought Israel along with him
While Yoav’s sole aim when he arrives in Paris is the total severance of ties with Israel, his experience in the city begins with a near death experience, as he all but freezes to death on his first night in Paris
Caroline and Emile do not remain the two-dimensional saviors he meets in the beginning, but morph into fully-fledged human beings, products of an alien culture to Yoav, people with flaws and a tendency to use Yoav for their own purposes
Summary
Nadav’s Lapid autobiographical film Synonymes (2019) is the story of Yoav, an Israeli youth who arrives “in France to flee from Israel,” (Lapid, 2019, 18:15) entirely unaware that he has brought Israel along with him. The collision of abstract knowledge and personal experience and their ties to modernity and antiquity, respectively, is an issue Lapid treats through the differences between Yoav, an ancient exile in modernity, and Emile, the representation of modernity in the story.
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