Intellectually stimulating, formally daring, full of explosive emotions and tongue-in-cheek humour, Footnote is an account of the eternal rivalry between fathers and sons, offering an incisive insight into the academic world replete with jealousy and envy.
Eliezer and Uriel Shkolnik are father and son. They have an utterly strained relationship, not so much on account of the eternal rivalry between fathers and sons or the intergenerational gap, but because of their professional competition. Both are professors, specialists in Talmudic Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The rivalry comes to a boil when Uriel becomes a victorious member of the Academy, and Eliezer, who has been excluded from this honour, turns green with envy. But Uriel’s triumph is short-lived. After long years of Eliezer’s frustration with his son’s academic success, the tables suddenly turn. The two men switch places when the father learns he is to be awarded the most valuable Israeli honour one can receive. Uriel is torn between pride and envy. He even seems ready to sabotage his father’s glory.
»I like that the film may be considered a comedy, because it tells the audience that they can feel comfortable to laugh and smile and not necessarily take everything too seriously. But if we want to be formalists, strictly speaking, I think this story qualifies as a tragedy. As most father : son stories do.« (Joseph Cedar)
Joseph Cedar
Born in 1968 in New York City, Cedar moved to Israel in early childhood. He studied philosophy and history in Jerusalem and is a graduate of New York University’s film school. Has achieved critical and commercial success with his first two features, and asserted himself internationally with his third, Beaufort, which received the Silver Bear Award for Best Director at the Berlin FF. Footnote is his fourth feature film.
filmography
2001 Hahesder (Time of Favor)
2004 Medurat hashevet (Campfire)
2007 Beaufort
2011 Hearat Shulayim (Footnote)