CHICAGO PREMIERE

Described by Romanian auteur Radu Jude (Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World) as the best film of the year, provocateur Nadav Lapid’s Yes is a biting, pitch black satire that takes a blistering and unflinchingly critical look at modern Israeli society. 

Set in the early days after October 7th, Yes is a maximalist fever dream that follows Y. (Ariel Bronz), a jazz musician, and his wife Yasmin (Efrat Dor), a hip-hop dancer, living in Tel Aviv with their newborn child, who have resolved to say yes to everything, selling their bodies, art, and minds to the highest bidder. After a pivotal meeting a party puts Y. in the company of the military elite, he is tasked with composing a new rousing, and ruthless, national anthem. 

Fearless and innovative, filmmaker Nadav Lapid’s body of work uses cinema to channel his fury and frustration with his birth country’s governmental policies and its society that is thoroughly consumed by vengeance and nationalism, including films like Synonyms (2019) and Ahed’s Knee (2021) that brim with righteous anger, spite, and shame. Yes premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.