Buy tickets for The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare!

Synonyms (Synonymes)

Find Movie Theaters & Showtimes

for near
in
Hmm... we couldn't find any showtimes for this date and location.

Videos & Photos

Movie Info & Cast

Synopsis

In Paris, things do not exactly get off to a good start for the newly arrived Yoav. He knocks on the door of the flat where he's supposed to stay, only to discover the place is empty. While he is taking a bath there, his belongings are stolen. Yet this young Israeli, who has arrived with such great expectations, will not be dissuaded that easily. Desperate to erase his origins, Yoav sees becoming French as his only hope for salvation. Step one is to replace his language. From now on, he will not utter a single word of Hebrew and his dictionary becomes his constant companion. The necessary visits to the Israeli embassy annoy Yoav he finds his compatriots to be a total burden but the naturalization test also has its pitfalls. And the young French couple whom he befriends has some rather strange ideas about how to help him.

Cast

  • Tom Mercier
  • Quentin Dolmaire
  • Louise Chevillotte
  • Uria Hayik
  • Olivier Loustau
  • Yehuda Almagor
  • Gaya Von Schwarze
  • Gal Amitai
  • Idan Ashkenazi
  • Dolev Ohana

Atom User Reviews

No one has posted a user review yet.

Metacritic

88
Nov 6, 2019

Synonyms turns increasingly oblique in its final half hour, as it dawns on Yoav that the door he’s hammering at may never open and let him in. But the sight of this desolate young man strutting about Paris in a borrowed orange trenchcoat is not one you’ll soon forget, nor the exhilarating film that swirls around him.

Metacritic review by Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
67
Oct 22, 2019

Above all, it’s about the impossible desire, shared by both expats and artists, to forge an identity of one’s own. But whereas the films it quotes sought to create cryptic and contrapuntal meanings, Lapid errs on the side of the loudly obvious, building to a final shot that might as well be a thesis statement for the rest of the film.

Metacritic review by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
The A.V. Club