Yes! Is Unflinchingly Critical of Israel — Which May Make It Hard to Release

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During the inaugural event at Cannes last week, jury head Juliette Binoche delivered an impassioned speech about Fatma Hassona, a 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist who was tragically killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City alongside her ten family members in April. This speech wasn’t mere lip service from a celebrity amidst the glamour and glitz of the event, which typically focuses on formalwear and Champagne. Instead, it served as a poignant reminder that the ongoing conflict in Gaza has been prolonged for too long, warranting attention from the film industry, which operates at its own leisurely pace. Hassona is the focus of the documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk“, part of this year’s festival’s ACID parallel program, which sheds light on life in Gaza through video calls between her and director Sepideh Farsi. The festival also features “Once Upon a Time in Gaza“, a crime dramedy by Palestinian brothers Tarzan and Arab Nasser in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, opening with a clip of Trump’s proposal to transform the region into the “Riviera of the Middle East” from February. However, there is no film currently addressing the ongoing crisis like Israeli director Nadav Lapid’s “Yes!“, premiering in Directors’ Fortnight today. This film is a raw expression of self-loathing about a jazz musician and his dancer wife who have been exploited by the Tel Aviv elite for their survival.

Excited! However, the subsequent events, though not as overwhelmingly compelling as the initial chapter, are still a harsh portrayal of cognitive dissonance that leaves a painful impression. The character Y (Ariel Bronz) is both performer and jester, moving through social gatherings filled with government officials, oligarchs, and the wealthy elderly like seasoned party entertainers. They act submissively, allow their faces to be smothered in dessert bowls, purposely lose singing competitions against high-ranking military figures, and even return home with a woman adorned in jewels who takes pleasure in ear stimulation. This behavior is a form of networking, albeit an apocalyptic one. As long as the music plays, they can avoid introspection, a habit that carries over into their daily life at home with their baby, where they play loud dance music to drown out the silence and the camera rapidly moves to match the beat, capturing their dancing forms and the cityscape. Notifications about deaths in Gaza on their phone briefly disturb this rhythm, but the characters quickly suppress and set aside such information. “I trust the army,” Y says calmly when reading a statement claiming the military aims to reduce civilian casualties.

Making movies about resistance and active righteousness often proves simpler than creating films about conformity, as most individuals find themselves, to varying degrees, in the latter category. As expressed by Lapid, who maintains a deep connection with Israel though he no longer resides there, and has never shied away from criticizing the country in public or through his work, this sentiment is reflected in the notes for his film. “I have always been drawn to characters who collide with walls or find themselves blocked,” he penned. “My obsession with these doors, whether open or closed, no longer involves me banging my head against them. It’s an outdated approach. Today, I express myself by showing a character who manages to slip through the open door before it shuts.”

Y perceives the state’s actions as wrongdoing, and believes his late mother would be appalled by “the tears of the occupiers,” yet he continues to conform, prioritizing family and career. “Submission brings happiness,” he whispers to a son too young to comprehend him, although the happiness he seeks appears more akin to anesthetization. Cycling along the beach, Y’s eyes widen like anime characters as he revels in the sunlight filtering through the trees, reflecting on how they once pondered how life could carry on as usual amidst atrocities. Now they understand.

Prior to the October 7 incident, Lapid began crafting the script, ultimately weaving the ensuing conflict and rising hypernationalism into the narrative. It’s challenging to envision a U.S. distributor willing to gamble on “Yes!“. Although it originates from an Israeli filmmaker, the film is likely to garner more criticism than financial success. Interestingly, “Yes!” also tackles this issue, exploring how being an artist often necessitates sacrificing personal values for funding, opportunities, patronage, and recognition. In her opening-ceremony speech, Binoche discussed art as a form of resistance and the role artists play in bearing witness on behalf of others. Contrarily, “Yes!” delves into how effortlessly art can be corrupted and manipulated to uphold power structures. Despite its bleak portrayal of reality, the film’s impact serves as a testament that art is not entirely powerless.

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2025-05-22 19:54