*** out of ****
Directed by: Joseph Cedar
Starring: Shlomo Bar-Aba, Lior Ashkenazi, Alma Zack, Yuval Scharf and Micah Lewensohn
Running time: 106 minutes
Footnote is a quirky, colourful drama from Israel and a Foreign Language film nominee at the Oscars earlier this year. The film examines the relationship between a father and son, both accomplished Talmudic scholars in present-day Jerusalem.
The father, Prof. Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar-Aba), spent close to 30 years researching different manuscripts of the Jerusalem Talmud, only to have another scholar, Yehuda Grossman (Micah Lewensohn), beat him to the chase and publish the same findings first.
The son, Prof. Uriel Shkolnik (Lior Ashkenazi), is a populist, favouring new methods of research and penning books about social issues in ancient times.
Both men’s offices are stacked with towers of texts, usually a signifier of knowledge, yet both men are unpractical. They know awfully little about communicating with each other.
The schism between father and son comes to a front when Eliezer is nominated for the Israel Prize, a major honour that Eliezer submitted his name for repeatedly. The conflict does not come from a jealousy between them, though, but a big misunderstanding.
The call for Eliezer was a mistake and should have gone to the other Prof. Shkolnik. Uriel learns of his triumph and the grave error from the committee chair: a crinkled, nasty Grossman – now the sealer of Eliezer’s disgruntlement for a second time.
The film is written and directed by American-born Israeli Joseph Cedar. Cedar manages to turn a film with very limited subject matter – Talmudic professorship – into a rollicking suspense-comedy, full of a cacophonous stringed score, surprising plot turns and suspenseful lead-ups to character interactions. From a subject so antiquated, a style so boldly executed is a relief.
The film’s most creative flourish is several montages. Both father and son are introduced in slide-formatted presentations, explaining their history, professional etiquette, favourite sayings (“You cannot base evidence on fools,” Eliezer quips), and other colourful anecdotes.
Bar-Aba, known for his comic chops in Israel, is superb as the grinchy Eliezer. He is twitchy and bitter in the film’s opening scene, when Uriel picks up a prestigious recognition from an Israeli Academy.
As Uriel thanks his father for committing him down the road of teaching, the camera doesn’t shy away from Eliezer’s stony reaction. He shuffles in his seat, looks bitter and never glances up at his son – a parental figure not full of pride but bottled rage.
He is not roused by his son’s accomplishments, which he believes are minor and superficial. Bar-Aba does a wonderful job expressing his envy without uttering a word.
However, Footnote abruptly ends with a cut to black that cops out the story instead of offering these two souls the closure they deserve. While ambiguous endings have become the popular way to tantalize an audience as the end credits roll, the film could have benefitted from explanation and not interpretation.
Moviegoers expect closure with a story as psychologically straightforward as Footnote’s. They are not as ready for interpretation when explanation will do just fine. They are not Talmudic scholars.
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