Amid the huge controversy over Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid’s criticism of the Vivek Agnihotri film The Kashmir Files, three other jury members of the just-concluded International Film Festival of India (IFFI) released a statement on Twitter endorsing Lapid's comments. All the foreign members of the jury said that they stand by Lapid’s statement. In their statement, American producer Jinko Gotoh, French film editor Pascale Chavance and French documentary filmmaker Javier Angulo Barturen said that they 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,” they said. They said they stand by Lapid’s statement at the festival’s closing ceremony on behalf of the jury members, in which he said: "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."
The lone Indian on the jury board Sudipto Sen maintained that the remarks made by Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid about The Kashmir Files were his personal opinion even as three other co-jurors came out in support of the jury head. The account from which Gotoh posted the statement is unverified, and Sen's name was not mentioned in it.
Lapid, who served as the chairperson of IFFI's international jury, termed The Kashmir Files a "vulgar and propaganda" movie in his speech at the award ceremony during the closing night of the nine-day film festival on Monday, November 28. The Kashmir Files, written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri, centres on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits during militancy in the early 1990s. The film has been accused by many of weaving a skewed narrative around Kashmir by dwelling on the suffering of Kashmiri Pandits alone and vilifying and delegitimising the pain of Kashmiri Muslims.
Asked whether he was approached for the statement, Sudipto Sen said they know that he doesn't agree with them. "I was the only Indian on the jury. I should have been part of that statement of the jury board. If they have excluded me, that means they know that Sudipto does not stand by it because that is not the truth,” he said.
"As a board member, I stand by that we didn't award 'The Kashmir Files'. We only awarded five films. This decision was unanimous. And we gave an official presentation to the NFDC and the festival authority. After that jury board's work is done… Now after that, if somebody goes in public and picks up one particular film and says something which is not expected, then that is his personal feeling. It has nothing to do with the jury board," Sen told PTI.
In his speech at the closing ceremony of IFFI 2022, Lapid said he was "disturbed and shocked" to see the film being screened at the film festival. "All of us were disturbed and shocked by the movie 'The Kashmir Files'. It felt to us like a propaganda and vulgar movie that was inappropriate for an artistic and competitive section of such a prestigious film festival. "I feel comfortable to openly share this feeling with you since the spirit of the festival can truly accept critical discussion which is essential for art and life", the filmmaker had said.
The Kashmir Files featured Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty and Pallavi Joshi among others. Both Anupam Kher and Vivek Agnihotri have targeted Lapid for his remarks. Israel’s Ambassador to India Naor Gilon has also condemned Lapid’s remarks and said that Lapid was drawing connections between his dislike of the political situation in Israel and the film.
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— Jinko Gotoh (@JinkoGotoh) December 2, 2022