''Synonyms'' (french: Synonymes) is a 2019 international co-produced

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Nadav Lapid Nadav Lapid () is an Israeli screenwriter and film director. Film critics consider him to be among the most internationally acclaimed filmmakers from Israel. Biography Lapid was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a family of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. H ...

, from a screenplay by Lapid and Haim Lapid. It stars Tom Mercier, Quentin Dolmaire and Louise Chevillotte. It had its world premiere at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

on 13 February 2019, where it won the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin. History The win ...

, and the FIPRESCI Award (Competition). It was released in Israel on 28 February 2019, in France on 27 March 2019, by SBS Distribution and in Germany on 5 September 2019, by Grand Film. The film received positive reviews from critics.

Plot

A young Israeli man absconds to Paris to flee his nationality.

Cast

* Tom Mercier as Yoav * Quentin Dolmaire as Emile * as Caroline * Uria Hayik as Yaron * as Michel *

Léa Drucker Léa Drucker (born 23 January 1972) is a French actress. Early life Born in Caen, Normandy, she is the niece of television presenter Michel Drucker, and of ex-president of M6 Jean Drucker. Her father Jacques is a medical doctor, and her mot ...

as French Teacher

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on 13 February 2019. The film was released in Israel on 28 February 2019. It was released in France on 27 March 2019, by SBS Distribution. In May 2019,

Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, ...

acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. It was released in Germany on 5 September 2019, by Grand Film. The film also screened at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on 9 September 2019. and the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it ...

on 29 September 2019. It was released in the United States on 25 October 2019.

Critical reception

''Synonyms'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds approval rating on review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on reviews, with an average of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Synonyms latches onto third-rail issues with thrilling audacity -- and taps into an energy that proves as discomfiting as it is infectious." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film holds a rating of 84 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

References

External links

*
Synonymes
in the

Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

2019 documentation {{DEFAULTSORT:Synonyms 2019 films 2019 drama films 2019 multilingual films French drama films 2010s French-language films Israeli drama films German drama films 2010s Hebrew-language films Golden Bear winners French multilingual films Israeli multilingual films German multilingual films Films directed by Nadav Lapid 2010s French films 2010s German films