Ken

Die Clowns-Nummern von Y. und Yasmin sind die Höhepunkte auf den Partys der israelischen High Society. In der Hochglanz-Welt der Reichen und Schönen haben alle beste Laune. Sie sagen „Yes“ zum Hedonismus, „Yes“ zur Politikvergessenheit, „Yes“ zum Staate Israel. Y. und Yasmin sind in diesem zynischen Setting Künstler und Überlebenskünstler. Bald beauftragt ein russischer Oligarch Y., eine neue Hymne zu komponieren. Wenn im Text von der Vernichtung der Menschen im Gaza-Streifen gesungen wird, hat die Wirklichkeit die Satire überholt: Das Lied gibt es wirklich. Lapids fulminanter Zerrspiegel steckt voller Symbolik und entfesselt zornige Kritik. (Dunja Bialas)

In Anwesenheit von Nadav Lapid.

A filmmaker committed to placing Israeli society under sharp critical scrutiny, Nadav Lapid pumps up the volume in KEN, directly drawing parallels between a decadent Israel today and Weimar Germany with a copy of George Grosz’s Pillars of Society seen at a boisterous pool party. And that’s just the prelude. Lapid’s protagonist Y, a musical comedian and sometimes sex worker (played by performance artist Ariel Bronz), is tasked with composing the score for a new fascistic national anthem post October 7. This hideous song, we will discover, is perhaps the least fictional part of the whole raucous provocation. To summarise this overstuffed self-annihilation would be futile, as KEN is a constantly inventive, abrasive tour de force that insists, in a polemic way, in unapologetically showing everything from Lapid’s own perspective. He has made a divisive political film eager to anger all sides, a no-win proposition slathered with an obscene messiness that aptly reflects the time in which we live, both inside Israel and out. Lapid asks essential questions: What does it mean to be an artist today who wants to avoid politics? What does it mean to be positive in a negative world? Is it possible today to only say “Yes!”? (Mark Peranson)

Nadav Lapid: POLICEMAN (2011), THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER (2014), SYNONYMS (2019), AHED’S KNEE (2021)