Winner of the Cannes Prize for best screenplay in 2011, Footnote is a story of feuding academics that lack the ability to contain their egos and how those egos flare over the smallest matters. Fought out between an unrecognised, bitter Professor of Talmudic studies Professor Eliezer Shkolnik (Bar-Aba) and a well-regarded, younger and charismatic Professor Uriel Shkolnik (Ashkenazi), Footnote is a story of pride and family. This father and son duo are incapable of sharing in each other's success and this tension between career recognition and what must remain of their love for one another drives the film.

Generally well-received internationally, it was nominated for a foreign language Oscar; it is a shame then that a film with such a strong script wasn't quite realised in its filming. Joseph Cedar tends to meander when he should explain, and avoids exploring the anxieties of the relationship. The characters, especially the elder Shkolnik, are at times grossly unappealing and their closely-knit worlds are difficult to emotionally penetrate. Maybe in the hands of a more experienced director this film would have come off, unfortunately however it doesn't quite fly with Cedar, and it's a shame it didn't.