The Kashmir Files: IFFI Foreign Jury Members Support Nadav Lapid, Issue Statement Sans Sudipto Sen

The Kashmir Files controversy that stemmed from the IFFI 2022 closing ceremony is far from over. On Saturday, IFFI Jury Head Nadav Lapid’s fellow international jury members issued a statement regarding the Israeli filmmaker’s statement on The Kashmir Files and said that they support his views. In a statement shared by jury member Jinko Gotoh on Twitter, he said that Jinko Gotoh, Pascale Chavance, and Javier Angulo Barturen support his stance. However, Sudipto Sen’s name was excluded from the 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 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.’ We stand by his statement,” Gotoh’s statement on Twitter read.

“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. Sincerely – 53rd IFFI Jurors: Jinko Gotoh, Pascale Chavance, and Javier Angulo Barturen,” he added.

In interviews following his controversial statement, Lapid said that his views were shared by his fellow IFFI jury members but Sen denied it. Speaking with The Indian Express, he said that the Israeli director acted upon his own and condemned his statements.

For the unversed, at the closing ceremony of IFFI 2022, Nadav Lapid called the film ‘vulgar’ and ‘propaganda’, sparking outrage online. “We were, all of us, disturbed and shocked by the 15th film: The Kashmir Files. That felt to us like propaganda, a vulgar movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival. I feel totally comfortable to share openly these feelings here with you on stage. Since the spirit of having a festival is to accept also a critical discussion which is essential for art and for life,” he said.

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