PANAJI
The row over the comments made at the closing ceremony of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) by the jury chairman and Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid critical of the 'The Kashmir Files' took a new twist on Saturday with three of his co-jury members backing him.
All the three foreign members of the IFFI jury issued a joint statement in support of Lapid after his comments stirred a row and even as a fifth Indian jury member, Sudipto Sen, had distanced himself from the comments.
“All of us were disturbed and shocked... by the movie The Kashmir Files that felt to us like a propaganda, vulgar movie inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival,” Lapid had said in his speech from the stage at the closing ceremony last Monday.
American filmmaker Jinko Gotoh, who is BAFTA winner, posted the statement on Twitter. It was signed by her and fellow jurors Pascale Chavance and Javier Angulo Barturen, who along with Lapid and Sen formed the five-member IFFI jury this year.
“At the festival’s closing ceremony, Nadav Lapid, the jury’s president, made a statement on behalf of the jury members... We stand by his statement,” the joint statement by the three jury members said.
The trio also said that they were "saddened" to learn that IFFI's stage was being used for politics.
It (Lapid's comment) was not a "political statement" on the film's content, they said while pointing out that it was on the 'artistic' aspects.
Lapid had made the statement when in the audience were present the Union I&B Minister Anurag Thakur, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant besides other government dignitaries and film celebrities.
Most of them, either part of the BJP or right leaning, were part of the political propaganda praising the Vivek Agnihotri film at the time of its release earlier this year.
Several BJP ruled States had granted tax exemption to the film which went on to be a commercial success.
Lapid's comments meanwhile, kicked up a storm with Indian media channels, perceived to be subservient to the BJP-led Central government by many, attacking the Israeli filmmaker.
Interestingly, Lapid was also attacked by the Israel's Ambassador to India, Naor Gilon, who said in a series of tweets that he should be “ashamed” to make the comments.
With the three other co-jurors issuing Saturday's statement, the lone Indian jury member Sudipto Sen is isolated in his distancing from Lapid's critique of The Kashmir Files.
Sen had said that Lapid spoke on his own behalf and that the rest of the jury did not subscribe to his critique of the film.
