Yoav, a young Israeli man, has a one-way ticket to Paris—believing France will be his salvation from what he sees as the madness of his country. Wholehearted in his resolution to erase his Jewish-Israeli origins, he refuses to speak Hebrew and obsessively studies his constant companion, a French dictionary. He develops a particularly strong bond with his privileged neighbor who, for him, symbolizes the French promise of fraternité. Nothing can extinguish Yoav’s determination to be thoroughly French. 

Based on the real-life experiences of writer-director Nadav Lapid, SYNONYMS explores the conflicted realm of fervent nationalism and the challenges of putting down roots in a foreign land. Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

"Astonishing, maddening, brilliant, hilarious, obstinate, and altogether unmissable." —David Ehrlich, IndieWire

“Breathtaking in the way it careens from one scene to the next in a whirlwind of personal and political meaning all but impossible to grasp in full measure, the film is an excoriation of Israel’s militant machismo and a self-teasing parody of Parisian stereotypes, embodied by actor Tom Mercier in this astonishingly audacious debut.”  —Jay Weissberg, Variety

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