YES World Cinema

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