The story of Synonyms takes place after the horrors of Nice. From the Paris bombers to the Charlie Hebdo attack to the terror attack on the "British Promenade" in Nice, France has experienced the worst casualties in post-Algerian history. For young French people who grew up in peaceful times, hating Muslim groups is the most direct emotional outlet for them when they are at a loss, and thus gives terrorists more opportunities to recruit extremists. In such an endless cycle, the anxiety and fragility of French society are amplified.
Yoav in "Synonyms" is an Israeli deserter who came to Paris as a refugee. He hates war, his country, and his identity. He wants to change his life in Paris. He pretends he grew up in Israel The Parisian, he also gave himself the French name "Raff", and Paris gave him a gift of stealing and freezing cold.
In addition to the contradictions of the characters' identities, director Rapid focuses on the confusion of the context. A man who communicates in French and Hebrew dictionaries begins to delusionally write in French, delusional about his own story in exchange for the superiority of being a Frenchman. So identity, race, language, life, and ideals are all entangled in a young man of blood and steel, and he has become a "good seedling" in the eyes of his compatriots .
At the end of the film, the protagonist's desperate knock on the door echoes the knock on the door at the beginning of the film for help. When he said "You don't know how lucky you are to be a Frenchman", the story is actually over.
The French can open the door and close it anytime they are offended and crossed. Mistaking sex for love, mistaking play for integration, mistaking envy for ideals, and mistaking stories for respect, swelling in front of "sugar-coated cannonballs" is the last straw that destroys his self-esteem. In the eyes of the French, he will always be a refugee who cannot get enough to eat, a vulgar, irritable and rude "thug".
In the film Yoav himself dictated two stories, one for the French and one for the Hebrews.
Talking to the French about guns and violins, about his confusion about war and his lingering fascination with violence, he stood in a clearing and shot at the church, and his inner glory and powerlessness were connected .
The story told to the Hebrews is the hero Hector in Greek mythology. Hector is a mortal hero, known as the first warrior of Troy. The story comes from Homer's epic "Iliad". In Yoav's story, Hector chose to run away while fighting Achilles, but the real story is that Achilles' spear pierced Hector's heart and dragged his body away with his chariot. to Troy. Hector was the person he admired most as a child, and he didn't become that person.
Lapid, who was born in Israel, his sobriety made the film. At the same time, in terms of expression skills, Lapid's shots also have their own language. The French practice that was repeated on the bridge was a stroke of genius, perhaps in the director's mind" "Synonyms" are not just those chattering French words, but also the difficulties of language and camera expression - in the face of pain, language is pale, and the film is powerless.
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