Mixing it up with the scholars: “Footnote”

David Begelman

Film Critic

Rumor has it that you don’t have to be a scholar of Hebrew scripture to appreciate Israeli director Joseph Cedar’s film, “Footnote.” Maybe not, but it helps—or rather, gives you a heads up in appreciating the agonies of a special breed of humanity when you’re one of the inner circle yourself.

In any field of study that only a select few can fathom, the emotional ups and downs of the calling seem to outsiders akin to perfect storms generated over nothing consequential. At least one of the characters in “Footnote” illustrates what such dedication is all about. For him, it consigns outside preoccupations to a detritus of inattention.

Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar Abal) and Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi), father and son, are both Talmudic scholars, but with a difference. At Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Eliezer devotes himself to an esoteric branch of philology, specializing in the scientific study of scriptural language. He is on the reclusive and asocial side, shunning publicity and devoted to a project that has consumed him for decades.

Uriel, on the other hand, is a popularizer of scripture. Outgoing, he travels in ever expanding social circles and commands a wider respect than his father. Yet he still has a thing for the old man, despite the latter’s unyielding contempt for his son’s approach to learning. Uriel is on a mission to have his father receive the coveted “Israel Prize,” the acme of academic achievement in his besieged country.

Fortune is unkind to the pair. Eliezer is finally awarded the Prize, although it was meant for Uriel. An administrative blunder has confused father with son, confounding the intent of the presiding committee headed by Professor Grossman (Micah Lewensohn). From this point on, the narrative moves swiftly forward in several tumultuous directions to make this film a competitor among last year’s entries for Best Foreign Film of 2011. The Academy Award went to Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s well crafted, “A Separation,” although Hollywood ceremony officials have always blithely thumbed their noses at the complexities of comparing apples and oranges.

Sections of the film are so compelling, it’s hard to imagine them being done any better. One of them involves an award committee meeting to which Uriel is summoned to be debriefed about the unintended mistake. The committee, including an attorney in the event of legal complications, convenes in a cubicle in which Grossman and Uriel go at each other in a mounting frenzy of rebuke culminating in a physical encounter. Other moments in which subtexts of the action come through loud and clear involve the relationship of Eliezer and Uriel to their wives and to each other. Uriel’s relationship with his own son Josh (Daniel Markovich) begins to show signs of strain because of the paternal stress.

The scholarly cross-purposes of father and son are registered in their relationship. On one celebratory occasion, Eliezer admits to being embarrassed by hugging his son, although the expression on his face suggests he doesn’t know what emotion he should be feeling. Uriel admits that, “When I hugged him today, I barely recognized him. His was the smell of a stranger, and he was my father.”

“Footnote” has a beguiling musical score by Amit Poznansky, and runs a gamut from gripping situational narrative to a more hurried—and some may feel—distracting use of montage by cinematographer Yaron Scharf. Actors in the cast without exception put in arresting and often brilliant performances.

For a more poignant and realistic treatment of people, rather than the usual diet of plastic super-heroes and their alluring but, alas, vacuous sidekicks, this is the movie to see.