Synonyms 2019

In Paris, Yoav, a young Israeli man, arrives with the aim of distancing himself from his Israeli identity. Not long after settling into an empty apartment, his belongings are stolen while he’s in the shower, leaving him naked, penniless, and desperate. He knocks on the doors of neighboring flats for help, and two young neighbors, Émile and Caroline, come to his aid. They find him unconscious in the bathtub, dress him, and lend him a little money. Émile, the son of a wealthy industrialist, feels an immediate pull toward him, while Caroline, who studies oboe at the conservatory, becomes a constant presence in his life as he tries to rebuild.

To cope, Yoav dedicates himself to learning French, memorizing words with a tiny dictionary, and quietly murmuring synonyms as he walks the streets. He moves out into a small, run-down one-room flat and navigates precarious living conditions, all the while staying in touch with the couple. He learns that Émile is writing a novel, and Yoav’s past in Israel surfaces only in fits and starts through conversations and chance encounters. In a new job as a security guard at the Israeli embassy, Yoav’s openly anti-Israeli stance and his refusal to speak Hebrew quickly make him unpopular. He clashes with the prevailing mood around him; his colleague Yaron sees Europe as a hotbed of antisemitism, especially France, and he often pushes provocative conversations in public spaces. This fragile dynamic helps drive a rift, and Yoav’s friendship with Yaron does not last.

A turning point arrives when Yoav loses his job after letting a waiting crowd into the embassy’s premises while chanting “Open borders!” and failing to verify identities. When his father arrives in Paris, Yoav refuses to meet him in person and sends Émile to handle the encounter. Yet his father manages to contact him, and Yoav refuses to speak Hebrew, asking him to leave in English. Émile, meanwhile, begins to view his own life as banal in comparison to Yoav’s intense, unsettled existence. Reluctantly, Yoav begins to tell Émile the story of his life, and his relationship with Caroline deepens as he starts an affair with her. At Émile’s urging, he even agrees to marry Caroline to secure a French passport more easily, though this means attending an integration course.

To support himself, Yoav tries modeling, which leads him into the shadowy world of porn. He is unknowingly drawn into a production where he’s asked to perform invasive acts on camera and to speak Hebrew, his mother tongue, which makes him nervous enough to switch back to Hebrew in front of the crew. He later flees a shoot after being forced to wear a soldier’s uniform and after his co-star refuses to have sex with him on camera. He turns to Émile for comfort and tries to retract the stories he has told, but Émile’s patience wears thin as their friendship deepens into strain. A quarrel with Caroline erupts when Yoav criticizes a performance with her orchestra, spiraling into a near-physical altercation with another musician. After months of turmoil, Yoav decides to return to Israel, hoping to leave Paris behind.

When he goes to say goodbye to Émile, he finds the door to the apartment locked, and in a final, tense moment he attempts to force it open, unsure of what the next chapter will hold.