YES World Cinema

YES

From the moment YES begins, Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid (AHED’S KNEE, AFI FEST 2021) takes viewers on a surprising, at times uncomfortable, and wildly absurd journey into the eccentric lives of jazz musician Y (Ariel Bronz) and dancer Yasmin (Efrat Dor). Despite their moral dissent, the married performers have been making ends meet in the wake of October 7th by entertaining Israel’s elite at salaciously extravagant parties. Essentially on call at a moment’s notice, the pair have acquiesced to the notion that “submission is happiness,” and that they must fall in line to stay afloat — to a point. The paradox of their predicament becomes clear when a domineering oligarch commissions Y to compose a new national anthem for Israel — a potentially lucrative offer that unnerves Yasmin as it brings Y to the edge of his already wavering sanity. In this latest tour de force, Lapid continues to directly critique the violent actions of his government, this time exploring the moral obligations of an artist as a demonstration of how compromise and corruption may begin as minor infractions but can metastasize into something of immense proportions. With its boldly idiosyncratic style and surreal dream logic, YES is Lapid’s radical commentary on moral ambivalence, artistic integrity and what it means to sell one’s soul for profit. –Julia Kipnis

Nadav Lapid was awarded the Jury Prize at Locarno in 2011 for POLICEMAN, the Berlinale Golden Bear in 2019 for SYNONYMS and the Jury Prize of the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 for AHED’S KNEE. YES is his fifth feature film.

Maxwell Wolkin
Kino Lorber
mwolkin@kinolorber.com

MEMBERS & PASSHOLDERS

Screenings

October 23, 5:45 p.m.

Chinese 4

Details

Country: France, Israel, Cyprus, Germany

Year: 2025

Director: Nadav Lapid

Screenwriter: Nadav Lapid

Producers: Judith Lou Lévy, Hugo Sélignac, Antoine Lafon

Director of Photography: Shai Goldman

Editor: Nili Feller

Production Designer: Pascale Cosigny

Costume Designer: Sandra Berrebi

Cast/Featuring: Ariel Bronz, Efrat Dor, Naama Preis, Alexey Serebryakov

Running Time (minutes): 149

Language: Hebrew

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