Ahed’s Knee begins with a balls-to-the-wall type introduction where we don’t quite know what we’re looking at. We think it’s a blank white screen, that is until streetlights pass through the frame, when we see our protagonist, Y (Avshalom Pollak), on his way to a casting call for his new film, Ahed’s Knee, inspired by the real life Palestinian activist who was arrested for slapping an Israeli soldier in front of news cameras, with the tone properly set by Guns n’ Roses Welcome to the Jungle.
As he’s en route to a screening of his previous film in rural Israel, we see his disdain for his homeland and the censorship that comes along with it. His host is Yahalom (Nur Fibak), Deputy Director of the Ministry of Culture Library Department, who is in charge of making sure his film obeys the country’s censorship rules. The film plays with subjectivity throughout, as proven by his very western clothing, interest in western music, even his black Jordan Air Force 1’s and leather jacket, aiming to show no biased color whatsoever. He can’t seem to get out of his head, as the line between objectivity and subjectivity blurs. When the frame is subjective, we tend to see his interiority from the outside. However, when it turns objective, we see the surroundings he’s been thrusted into.
The landscape is very much a character in the film, as counterpointed by the protagonist’s affinity for the western world, interpreting it as his own. Every element of the film tends to act against him: the depth of field plays a character, the music choice plays a character, even the color temperature plays a character, all aiming to separate the protagonist from his homeland. The duality is present in the film as he acts against laws of restraint and censorship in order to speak the truth of his country’s oppression. He stands on the outside of brainwashing, daring to prove the inhumane acts his country has brought upon itself and its citizens.
Much like Nadav Lapid’s previous film Synonyms, Ahed’s Knee is another assault on Israel. It is a study of assimilation, where the western world is interpreted by our protagonist as his own, but still lies just out of reach. However, unlike the protagonist in Synonyms where he tries to escape his heritage, Ahed’s Knee tackles the disdain of heritage head on, as Yahalom says in the film, “At the end, geography wins.”