NADAV LAPID

An Israeli writer and director born in Tel Aviv, Nadav Lapid studied philosophy there, then literature in Paris, before training at the Sam Spiegel Film School. His films turn a furious, physical camera on Israeli masculinity, national identity and the moral position of the artist under the state. Policeman won the Special Jury Prize at Locarno, The Kindergarten Teacher was widely remade abroad, and Synonyms took the Golden Bear in Berlin with its portrait of a soldier trying to shed his country for France. Ahed’s Knee, his most nakedly autobiographical work, won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Critics consider him among the most internationally acclaimed filmmakers working in Israel today.