Too Close for Comfort: Nadav Lapid’s Film Ken at the Viennale

"Ken" means “yes” in Hebrew. But in Nadav Lapid’s latest film, thissingle word opens into a moral labyrinth. It can mean agreement,consent, obedience – the “yes” one sometimes gives in surrenderto power, war, and violence. But it can also be the “yes” to thedesperate temptation to escape and leave behind the inhumane regimein which one becomes complicit by virtue of living in it – a yes tomoral integrity and freedom. The tension between these meanings runsthrough every frame of the film and gives irony and depth to itstitle.