MOVIES

Footnote summarizes all the references of the relationship between father and son

By Jenny Alvarez

Photo: Cortesy

Footnote is the tale of a great rivalry between a father and son. Eliezer and Uriel Shkolnik are both eccentric professors who have dedicated their lives to their work in Talmudic Studies.  The father, Eliezer, is a stubborn purist who fears the establishment and has never been recognized for his work. While his son, Uriel, is an up-and-coming star in the field, who appears to feed on accolades, endlessly seeking recognition.

Then one day, the tables turn. When Eliezer learns that he is to be awarded the Israel Prize, the most valuable honor for scholarship in the country, his vanity and desperate need for validation are exposed. His son Uriel, meanwhile, is thrilled to see his father’s achievements finally recognized but, in a darkly funny twist, is forced to choose between the advancement of his own career and his father’s.  Will he sabotage his father’s glory?

Their relation is very complicated between a father and son.  Does Uriel give too much respect to his father? Is the price he pays too great? It’s much more a tragedy than a comedy (though it has very funny bits) and I found the focus on the word (as in “In the beginning was the word”) fascinating. “Footnote” is a decidedly male-centric film. Structurally, this film is divided into named chapters that make for cute markers but give it the not-entirely satisfying feel of a jaunty satire.

Eventually the movie focuses on an unknown that is stretched almost to the point of paradox: Is the quality of the old man’s work in academe really unsurpassed, or is it really unsatisfactory? The movie does turn out to be a fable, and a fable worth taking seriously. Finally, we won’t know the possible end but I figure out that love will win in this complex paradigm.