YES  (Amazon Prime)

Peneflix rarely reviews films on streaming platforms, but I have been eagerly awaiting this highly controversial film from Israeli director Nadav Lapid (“Ahed’s Knee”). It is worth viewing for its insight into the experience of an Israeli whose life is constantly overshadowed by the specter of death. “Yes” follows a contemporary pianist “Y” Ariel Bronz, his wife “Yasmin” Efrat Dor, a dancer and their child. It depicts the aftermath of October 7th 2023; artists cauterized from universal culture especially the Israeli lot; commencing with a dance number that salutes perversity on a pedestal, remarkability lies in devastating choreography, this is the last dance by a pair saying so long to a doomed life; happiness, joy perpetually stalked by horror, grief; a shambolic realm awaits them; so dance hilariously, recklessly until bleakness convenes.

Magnificent cinematography, peppered with bombing, Zephyrus hovers with faux peaceful winds; Y is a slapstick, fanatic, Yasmin a realist as they work with the government to create a new chauvinistic national anthem. An absurdist satire mocking the wealthy, present-day government and military, highlighting murder, both sides oozing with guilt, absence of accountability.

There is a glorious, musical scene between Y and childhood friend “Leah” (Naama Preis wife of the director) resonating with powers, elations of the past in tandem with later horrific tales of the slaughter of innocents on October 7th; moral complexity, anger and confusion dominate the core of “Yes”. More than the metaphors Lapid soaks audiences with the essence of being an Israeli: isolated, religiously hated by neighboring countries, shunned, but always aware that existence is fleeting, erasure with the flick of a switch, love, life annihilated, counterintuitive.

FOUR STARS!!!!

Peneflix