''Synonyms'' () 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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

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. Early life Lapid was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, to a family of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. ...

, from a screenplay by Lapid and Haim Lapid. It stars Tom Mercier,

Quentin Dolmaire Quentin Dolmaire (born 18 February 1994) is a French actor. He was nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actor in 2016 for his role in '' My Golden Days''. Biography Dolmaire, having played theatre since the age of ten, quit his phy ...

and Louise Chevillotte. The film had its world premiere at the

69th Berlin International Film Festival The 69th annual Berlin International Film Festival took place from 7 to 17 February 2019. French actress Juliette Binoche served as the Jury President. Lone Scherfig's drama film '' The Kindness of Strangers'' opened the festival. The Golden ...

on 13 February 2019, where it won the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear () is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival and is, along with the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion, the most important international film festival award. The bear is the heraldic an ...

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

Plot

A young Israeli man absconds to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to flee his

nationality Nationality is the legal status of belonging to a particular nation, defined as a group of people organized in one country, under one legal jurisdiction, or as a group of people who are united on the basis of culture. In international law, n ...

Cast

* Tom Mercier as Yoav *

as Emile * as Caroline * Uria Hayik as Yaron * as Michel *

Léa Drucker Léa Drucker (born 23 January 1972) is a French actress. She played Catherine Durand in the French-British television series '' War of the Worlds''. She won the César Award for Best Actress in 2019 for her role in the film '' Custody''. Early ...

as French Teacher

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

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 film, art ho ...

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 most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

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. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

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 aggregator, 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 ...

, 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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, 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 (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

2019 documentation {{DEFAULTSORT:Synonyms 2019 films 2019 drama films 2019 independent 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 Israeli independent films German independent films French independent films 2010s French films 2010s German films French-language Israeli films