Israeli Prize-Winning Wry Comedy, "The Footnote," Coming to Lincoln Center

The New York Film Festival is coming to Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall from September 30 through October 16. One of the featured films is a wry comedy called Footnote, in Hebrew with English subtitles, which won the Best Screenplay prize at Cannes this year for filmmaker Joseph Cedar. Footnote will be shown Monday night, October 11 at 9 pm and Tuesday, October 12 at 6 pm. We're planning to attend the Monday showing. If you're in New York, why not join us?

Here's a synopsis of the plot, followed by a video trailer for the film. Enjoy!

Thanks to a clerical error, Eliezer Shkolnik, a respected if little-known Talmudic scholar, is informed that he’s won the coveted Israel Prize; in truth, the prize was meant for his son, Uriel, a much more flamboyant, widely-read Talmudist. The authorities ask Uriel to help them rectify the situation, but Uriel argues the case for his father’s deserving the honor; meanwhile, Eliezer plans to use the occasion as an opportunity to intellectually take down his son and the whole generation of a la mode Talmudists. Cedar has here created the wryest of Jewish comedies, a emotional competition that pits father against son, built around the understanding of sacred texts. Rarely has the weight of a culture’s intellectual past been depicted so forecefully, nor shown to be as vibrant. 

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)