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One Israeli creation for the weekend

[additional-authors]
November 1, 2013

Footnote is a 2011 Israeli drama film written and directed by Joseph Cedar, starring Shlomo Bar'aba and Lior Ashkenazi. It tells the story of father and son, both Professors studying and teaching Talmud and Judaism, and their complicated relationship. The son is extremely popular with his students and the public and has a young, modern take on his world of research. The father is very old fashioned, unpopular and frustrated by his would-be lifetime research achievement having gone unfulfilled, as a rival scholar published similar results one month ahead of him.


The story begins on the day the father revives a phone call from the Minister of Education, who tells him he was awarded with the prestigious Israel Prize, his lifelong dream. The following day, his son is summoned to an urgent meeting with the Israel Prize committee, where he is told that an error had occurred and that in fact it was he, not his father, who was awarded the Israel Prize. From that point on, the plot thickens as the son is conflicting on his following acts on the matter, as the father, living his dream, interviews to a newspaper and tells the world what he truly thinks of his son.


Footnote won the Best Screenplay Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.  It also won nine prizes at the 2011 Ophir Awards, and was nominated for the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

Enjoy the trailer: