After unleashing a massive controversy as he attacked the film ‘The Kashmir Files’ on stage in front of several ruling party ministers, on Monday, the Israeli director Nadav Lapid, who served as head of the jury at the International Film Festival in Goa, India, while talking to Ynet elaborated on his criticism of the film and said that “It’s crazy, what’s going on here.”
“It was broadcast live on television. It’s a government festival and it’s the biggest in India. It’s a film that the Indian government, if it didn’t actually initiate, at least pushed it in an unusual way, because it basically justifies the Indian policy in Kashmir, and it has fascist features. The claim is there It is that the dimensions of the event were hidden by the intellectuals and the media. And it is always the same method – that there is the foreign enemy, and there are the traitors from within. Our colleagues in the emerging government can tell about these methods,” Ynet.co reported.
Further, Lapid said that the Indian communications minister together with the Israeli ambassador discussed the similarity between the two countries, since both are “fighting a similar enemy and are in a bad neighborhood.”
“When I saw this film, beyond the fact that it shocked me with the transparent combination exists in it between propaganda and fascism and vulgarity, I could not help but imagine an Israeli film like this in another year and a half or two.”
“I knew that this was an event that is terribly connected to the country, and everyone stands there and praises the government. It is not an easy position, because you are a guest, I am the president of the jury here, you are treated very nicely. And then you come and attack the festival. There was apprehension, and there was discomfort . I didn’t know what the dimensions would be, so I did it with some apprehension. Yes, I spent the day apprehensive. Let’s put it this way: I’m happy to be on my way to the airport now,” he said, as per Ynet.
“They came up to me to thank me for what I said. And I said to myself that it would have happened, or when something similar happened here, then I would be happy for the chairman of a foreign jury to stand up and speak, even if it is not a pleasant feeling. It was a hall with thousands of people, and everyone was ecstatic to see the local stars and cheer for the government. In countries that are increasingly losing the ability to speak your mind or speak the truth, someone needs to speak up. When I saw this movie, I couldn’t help but imagine its Israeli equivalent, which doesn’t exist but could definitely exist. So I felt I had to, because I come from a place that is itself not reformed, and is itself on the way to these places,” concluded Lapid.
Lapid, in his speech at the closing of the ceremony, criticised the film, which was screened as part of the competition. “We were all disturbed and shocked by the 15th film, ‘The Kashmir Files’, which felt to us like a propaganda, film, inappropriate to the competitive framework of such a reputed film festival”.
“I am completely comfortable openly sharing these feelings here with you on stage,” said Lapid, “because the spirit of the festival can really also accept a critical discussion, which is essential to art and life.”
The much criticised Bollywood film, by director Vivek Agnihotri, deals with the migration of the Kashmiri Pandit population from Kashmir in the 1990s. The film states that acts of hostility by the Muslim population of Kashmir caused this, and that a genocide was committed against the Hindus, a claim often criticized by many, leading to the criticism of the film as provocative agenda.