Ahed's Knee

Ahed's Knee (Hebrew: הַבֶּרֶךְ, romanized: Habereḵ, lit. 'The Knee') is a 2021 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Nadav Lapid.^[3] It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.^[4][5] At Cannes, the film shared the Jury Prize with Memoria by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.^[6][7]

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	7 July 2021 (2021-07-07) (Cannes)
Countries	Israel France Germany
Language	Hebrew
Box office	$219,878[1][2]

Synopsis

The film's protagonist is "Y" (Avshalom Pollak), a film director working on a new film about Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi. While traveling to the Arava desert to screen one of his previous films, and as his mother is dying, the director meets Yahalom (Nour Fibak), a clerk from the Ministry of Culture. She demands he sign a politically controversial form that requires him to define his film's content using politically biased terminology reflecting right-wing worldviews. Y becomes close to Yahalom while simultaneously trying to use her to fight against the agenda she serves.

Cast

• Avshalom Pollak as Y
• Nur Fibak as Yahalom
• Yoram Honig as the farmer
• Yonathan Kugler as the young Y
• Lidor Ederi as Narkis
• Amit Shoshani as the fearful soldier
• Yehonatan Vilozny as the sergeant
• Naama Preis as the casting director
• Ortal Solomon as Ahed 1
• Mili Eshet as Ahed 2
• Oded Menaster as Smotrich
• Netta Roth as the young actor

Release

The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, it had its premiere on 7 July 2021 in the festival. It was also selected in 'Icon' section of 26th Busan International Film Festival and was screened in the festival in October 2021.^[8] It was invited in the Soul of Asia section at the 52nd International Film Festival of India for screening in November.^[9]

The film was inspired by the story of Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi.^[10]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten 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]