was a near shoo-in for the 2021 competition, where he would go on to collect a Jury Prize for his newest,In some sense, it feels very much like a film by Lapid, whose career has been defined by searing sociopolitical commentary on the Israeli government, a feverish intensity and a complexity of conflict that feels infinite. But, in another sense,is a departure for Lapid—a new chapter. He wrote the feature in two weeks, and it usually takes him a year or more to finish a screenplay.
In making movies, especially fiction movies, we always take so much time, and usually this time is positive. It makes it a well-conceived, well-thought, well-calculated piece of art. And before I made the movie, I remember I was looking at these famous videos of Jackson Pollock, you know, like, running and hitting.
I read you describe the movie as taking an “existential aesthetical” position, opposed to a political one, yet it’s a film that’s heavy on political discourse and pretty in your face about it. Can you explain what you meant by that?I feel like in general my movies—and maybe even more this one, which is apparently a very explicit one—first of all, they are different from what we used to call political cinema, at least, you know, the usual political cinema.
And the other thing is that the movie is full of all sorts of ingredients, and colors, and melodies that, as you say, are so different. I mean, the movie is bitter, the movie’s harsh, but when we look at the list of songs, for instance, in the movie, we see Vanessa Paradis and “Lovely Day.