MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
SEEMINGLY INCAPABLE OF FILMING A VISUALLY UNINTERESTING scene, Nadav Lapid continues to refine his highly muscular compositional sense, which can turn even the most mundane encounter into a moment fraught with energy and tension. I spoke with Lapid two days before Synonyms won the Golden Bear at the 69th Berlinale in February.
Can you tell me a bit about the personal experiences that inspired Synonyms?
The film is based on personal experience in the sense that more or less all the things that occur in it have really happened. Sometimes in different versions, sometimes closer to my experience. For example, like everyone in Israel, I served three or three and a half years in the military. When I completed my service, on one of my first days out, I colored my hair platinum as a way of telling myself it was over. And
