Posted on Nov 30, 2022
An Israeli director sparks outrage in India over a film about Hindu persecution
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https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/ [login to see] /an-israeli-director-sparks-outrage-in-india-over-a-film-about-hindu-persecution
Scandal has engulfed one of India's most prestigious film festivals over a Bollywood box office hit, an Israeli director's take on it — and accusations of pro- and anti-Hindu bias that are shaking Indian-Israeli relations.
It's all unfolded at the International Film Festival of India, held over the past week in the western Indian state of Goa. At the closing ceremony Monday, the head of the festival's jury, Israeli director Nadav Lapid, praised 14 of the 15 films screened in the festival's international competition. He said they all have "cinematic richness, diversity and complexity."
But he singled out the 15th film for a starkly different assessment.
"We were, all of us [jurors], disturbed and shocked ... by the movie Kashmir Files," Lapid, an award-winning filmmaker, said onstage. "It felt to us like a propaganda vulgar movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival."
Scandal has engulfed one of India's most prestigious film festivals over a Bollywood box office hit, an Israeli director's take on it — and accusations of pro- and anti-Hindu bias that are shaking Indian-Israeli relations.
It's all unfolded at the International Film Festival of India, held over the past week in the western Indian state of Goa. At the closing ceremony Monday, the head of the festival's jury, Israeli director Nadav Lapid, praised 14 of the 15 films screened in the festival's international competition. He said they all have "cinematic richness, diversity and complexity."
But he singled out the 15th film for a starkly different assessment.
"We were, all of us [jurors], disturbed and shocked ... by the movie Kashmir Files," Lapid, an award-winning filmmaker, said onstage. "It felt to us like a propaganda vulgar movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival."
An Israeli director sparks outrage in India over a film about Hindu persecution
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Scandal
Israel
India
Movies
Propaganda
Posted >1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."These days, Kashmir is in the news more for alleged persecution of its Muslim-majority population under Modi's government. In 2019, Indian authorities flooded Kashmir with troops, cut off the internet, and canceled the region's special constitutional status — bringing it under direct control of New Delhi.
Roughly 4 out of 5 Indians are Hindu. But India is also home to some 200 million Muslims, and human rights groups say they have suffered disproportionate discrimination and violence under Modi's rule. So Kashmir — India's only Muslim-majority region — poses a conundrum for the Hindu nationalists currently in power.
Modi has sought to reform India into a Hindu state, with special rights for its Hindu majority. His vision for India has been compared to Lapid's home country, Israel — a fellow democracy that endows some citizenship rights according to its majority Jewish religion.
Lapid is no stranger to confrontation. He opposes his own government's occupation of the West Bank, which Palestinians seek for their own independent state. He signed an open letter earlier this year, along with more than 250 other Israeli filmmakers, refusing to work with a group organizing a film festival there.
His 2021 film Ha'berech (Ahed's Knee), which shared a prize at the Cannes Film Festival, is a semi-autobiographical critique of the Israeli government's own policies toward culture and propaganda. The website of Austria's top film festival describes the director as "possessed with a self-righteous fury."
..."These days, Kashmir is in the news more for alleged persecution of its Muslim-majority population under Modi's government. In 2019, Indian authorities flooded Kashmir with troops, cut off the internet, and canceled the region's special constitutional status — bringing it under direct control of New Delhi.
Roughly 4 out of 5 Indians are Hindu. But India is also home to some 200 million Muslims, and human rights groups say they have suffered disproportionate discrimination and violence under Modi's rule. So Kashmir — India's only Muslim-majority region — poses a conundrum for the Hindu nationalists currently in power.
Modi has sought to reform India into a Hindu state, with special rights for its Hindu majority. His vision for India has been compared to Lapid's home country, Israel — a fellow democracy that endows some citizenship rights according to its majority Jewish religion.
Lapid is no stranger to confrontation. He opposes his own government's occupation of the West Bank, which Palestinians seek for their own independent state. He signed an open letter earlier this year, along with more than 250 other Israeli filmmakers, refusing to work with a group organizing a film festival there.
His 2021 film Ha'berech (Ahed's Knee), which shared a prize at the Cannes Film Festival, is a semi-autobiographical critique of the Israeli government's own policies toward culture and propaganda. The website of Austria's top film festival describes the director as "possessed with a self-righteous fury."
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