★★★★

Nadav Lapid’s Ahed’s Knee is a challenging but engrossing movie experience. At once dizzying, confounding, and mesmerizing, the film has a “devil-could-care” attitude about it, culminating in a powerful and damning statement against censorship, free speech, and the ways artists can never truly extricate them from their own creations, even as others conspire to limit or restrict one’s artistic expression.

The whiplash opening minutes depict a filmmaker named Y (Avshalom Pollak) preparing to shoot a fictionalized movie based on the true story of a teenage Palestinian activist who famously slapped an Israeli soldier in 2017. By the time the opening scenes conclude, the prospective actor auditions with a frenzied take on Guns ‘N’ Roses’ classic, “Welcome to the Jungle,” and may or may not have had their knee bludgeoned with a sledgehammer.

Though the jungle proves metaphorical, much of Ahed’s Knee takes place in the desolate desert community of Arava, in Israel, near the Dead Sea. Y is there to appear at a screening of one of his recent films, commissioned and arranged by Yahalom (Nur Fibak), a devoted fan of Y’s work. She works for the Israeli Ministry of Culture, which eventually comes into conflict with Y’s appearance, as a series of agreements and rules and regulations must be followed, which seek to limit or restrict what Y can say about his process, his films, and his beliefs in making them.

As Y and Yahalom spend time together, there is a balancing act of mental seduction, discussion, and simmering debate, disguised as conversation. Y is manipulative and Yahalom is starstruck, until roles reverse and Ahed’s Knee becomes a visceral, politically-charged commentary on antiquated beliefs around free speech and the destructive power in tradition and personal morality and values.

This may not be a film for everyone, and I would be lying if I didn’t acknowledge that some of the socio-political commentary is something I am not fully versed in. However, like good movies often do, Lapid draws us in to a world unfamiliar to us, with characters we cannot turn away from, presenting a semi-autobiographical story that, even at it’s most ugly and disquieting, shows the ease with which cruelty and manipulation can be deployed to serve personal interests.

Ahed’s Knee was screened as part of the 48th Seattle International Film Festival.