Yes review – a fierce satire of Israel’s ruling classes, radioactive with political pain

Cannes film festivalNadav Lapid’s brilliant, showy set-pieces present a caricature of decadence and heartlessness in a society haunted by 7 OctoberNadav Lapid’s Yes is a fierce, stylised, confrontational caricature-satire that invites a comparison with George Grosz, dialled up to 11 in its sexualised choreography and almost radioactive with political pain. With icy provocation, Israel’s ruling classes are presented as decadent and indifferent to the slaughter and suffering of Gaza. But the film is also in some ways a sympathetic study of a people haunted by the antisemitic butchery of 7 October.It is inspired by the activist group Civic Front, which after 7 October released a new version of Haim Gouri’s classic song Hareut, or Fellowship, with jarring new lyrics calling for wholesale extermination in Gaza. A fictional version of this song features here, with lyrics about attacking the bearers of the swastika (as in the original) but also presents its audience with slick equivalence: the “Nazi” gotcha-comparison is levelled at Israel in a way that it isn’t at other countries. There is an odious Russian fintech bro here, commissioning jingoistic, nationalistic music; the suggested equivalence between Putin and Israel is presented without subtlety, although subtlety is maybe beside the point. One fourth-wall breaking scene has one man list the people who are supposedly anti-Israel: the BBC, CNN, the New York Times – and then turn furiously and directly to the camera: “… and you too are anti-Israel!” Continue reading...

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