Cannes parallel section Directors’ Fortnight has added Israeli director Nadav Lapid’s Yes! (Ken!) to its 2025 selection.
Set in the aftermath of the October 7, Hamas attacks on Israel, the film revolves around a struggling jazz musician, and his wife Jasmine, a dancer, who give their art, souls, and bodies to the highest bidder, bringing pleasure and consolation to their bleeding country.
This endeavor sees the jazz musician entrusted with a mission of the utmost importance: to set a new national anthem to music.
The cast features Ariel Bronz, Efrat Dor, Naama Preis and Alexey Serebryakov.
The film is produced by Judith Lou Lévy at Les Films du Bal, and Hugo Sélignac & Antoine Lafon at Chi-Fou-Mi Productions.
Co-Producers are Thomas Alfandari at Bustan Films (Israel); Janine Teerling and Marios Piperides at AMP Filmworks (Cyprus), as well as Janine Jackowski, Jonas Dombach and Maren Ade at Komplizen Film (Germany) as well Arte France Cinéma, with participation of ZDF/Arte.
Lapid is represented by Gersh, Kneller Artists Agency, UBBA, and Paul Hastings.
The director was last in Cannes in 2021 with Ahed’s Knee which shared the Jury Prize with Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria. Prior to that, he was in Cannes with breakout feature The Kindergarten Teacher, which premiered in Critics’ Week in 2014.
Yes! is one of two Israeli features playing in Cannes this year alongside Or Sinai’s debut feature Mama, which was among 16 titles added to the Official Selection on Wednesday.
It joins 18 other features previously announced for the section, overseen by the French Directors Guild (Société des Réalisateurs de Films), which include Enzo by late director Laurent Cantet and Robin Campillo, Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby and Christian Petzold’s Miroirs No. 3.
The 57th edition runs from May 14-22.