| Ahed's Knee | |
|---|---|
 Festival poster | |
| הַבֶּרֶךְ | |
| Directed by | Nadav Lapid |
| Written by | Nadav Lapid |
| Produced by | Osnat Handlesman-Keren Talia Kleinhendler Judith Lou Lévy Ève Robin |
| Starring | Avshalom Pollak Nur Fibak |
| Cinematography | Shai Goldman |
| Edited by | Nili Feller |
Production companies | Les Films du Bal Pie Films Komplizen Film GmbH |
| Distributed by | Pyramide Distribution(France) |
Release date |
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| Countries | Israel France Germany |
| Language | Hebrew |
| Box office | $219,878[1][2] |
Ahed's Knee (Hebrew:הַבֶּרֶךְ,romanized: Habereḵ,lit. 'The Knee') is a 2021 internationally co-produceddrama film directed byNadav Lapid.[3] It was selected to compete for thePalme d'Or at the2021 Cannes Film Festival.[4][5] At Cannes, the film shared theJury Prize withMemoria byApichatpong Weerasethakul.[6][7]
"Y" (Avshalom Pollak), afilm director, is working on a new film about PalestinianactivistAhed Tamimi. He travels to theArava desert to attend a screening of one of his films at a local library, a government institution. There he meets Yahalom (Nour Fibak), an official from the Ministry of Culture. She explains he needs to sign a form that defines the subject of his appearance at the screening, a form that offers him a checklist of topics acceptable to the government all of which reflect itsright-wing ideology and antipathy to criticism. Y becomes close to Yahalom while exploring how to use her sympathy for a more liberal approach to culture and speech to attack the government's agenda.
The film was selected to compete for thePalme d'Or at the2021 Cannes Film Festival, it had its premiere on 7 July 2021 in the festival. It was also selected in 'Icon' section of26th Busan International Film Festival and was screened in the festival in October 2021.[8] It was invited in the Soul of Asia section at the52nd International Film Festival of India for screening in November.[9]
The film was inspired by the story of Palestinian activistAhed Tamimi.[10]
On the review aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 75% of 59 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "An occasionally uneasy blend of human drama and message movie,Ahed's Knee forcefully reaffirms that the personal is political."[11]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[12]