Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid's comments terming 'The Kashmir Files' as "vulgar" and "propaganda" led to a row but now he has got support from three others jury members of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa. A statement posted on Twitter by jury member Jinko Gotoh, along with Pascale Chavance and Javier Angulo Barturen as undersigned, said the entire jury knew — and agreed with — what Mr Lapid said as jury chief.
At the festival’s closing ceremony, Nadav Lapid, the jury’s president, made a statement on behalf of the jury members, stating : “We were all of us disturbed and shocked by the 15th film, The Kashmir Files, that felt to us like a vulgar propaganda movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival.”
Nadav Lapid, later, said he did not mean to deny the tragedy of Kashmiri Pandits, but had only commented on the movie's "cinematic manipulations", and that the tragedy "deserves a serious movie". His comment has got support from the three other fellow jurors in their joint statement.
"At the festival's closing ceremony, Nadav Lapid, the jury's president, made a statement on behalf of the jury members stating: 'We were all of disturbed and shocked by the 15th film, The Kashmir Files, that felt to us like a vulgar propaganda movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival.' We stand by his statement," it read. Though the Twitter account from which it has been posted is not verified.
"And to clarify, we were not taking a political stance on the film's content, we were making an artistic statement, and it saddens us greatly to see the festival platform being used for politics and subsequent personal attacks on Nadav. That was never the intention of the jury," it added.
Jinko is an Oscar-nominated BAFTA winner producer of Klaus Other credits include THE LEGO MOVIE 2, THE LITTLE PRINCE, FINDING NEMO, 9, and THE ILLUSIONIST. Javier A Barturen is a documentary filmmaker and journalist from France; and Pascale Chavance is a film editor from France.
Following his comments on November 28, Nadav Lapid faced a backlash leading him to seek to clarify that he did not mean to deny the tragedy of Kashmiri Pandits, but had only commented on the movie’s “cinematic manipulations”, and that the tragedy “deserves a serious movie”.
Soon after his comment, the director of the film Vivek Agnihotri has alleged that Mr Lapid denied the tragedy of Pandits, who had to leave Kashmir due to terrorism in the 1990s.
