Its ambitions are decidedly large, but the events it depicts rather mundane. Synonyms is a story not of nations but of the people that travel through them. Yoav sees Paris differently, a refuge in itself. For Yaron, Europe represents a hornets' nest for Jews everywhere, he sees anti-Semitic attacks or their looming threat, with the Israeli embassy a haven. His humming becomes more and more aggressive, as he flits around the car, getting in fellow passengers' faces, staring them down. Earlier, Yaron starts humming the Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, on the train. He introduces a friend, Yaron (Uria Hayik), to another man, Michel (Olivier Loustau), and the two immediately begin wrestling, a violent job interview. In the security job, he's caught up in the same world. It's why he up and left for Parisian life, and why he forbids himself to speak Hebrew. He feels ashamed of Israel's military culture, its suffocating masculinity. Which is almost exactly where Yoav hoped he wouldn't end up. His heritage tinges his French with an Israeli accent, and he only finds work at the Israeli embassy, in security.

Yoav, who swears off speaking Hebrew, faces obstacles. Movies Mothers' Love Transcends Security Checkpoints

Emile and Caroline become his closest friends, his guides through his newly adopted city. Showing more curiosity than concern, they bring him to their apartment, warm him, clothe him, and send him on his way with seemingly as many belongings as he had when he arrived: enough to get by. His neighbors, Emile (Quentin Dolmaire) and Caroline (Louise Chevillotte), soon discover him. Not a great start for a self-imposed exile, but a wonderful start for the movie that unfolds.

He bangs on his neighbors' doors for help, hollering when they don't respond, and slips back to his bathtub, shivering in the cold. After leaving his apartment's front door ajar while bathing, he finds his clothes stolen. It's not long into Synonyms before Yoav (Tom Mercier), a young Israeli in Paris, get caught with his pants down. Naked and Abroad: Synonyms, staring Tom Mercier took home the 2019 Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Tom mercier we are who we are