‘You should be ashamed’: Israel ambassador after IFFI jury head criticises Kashmir Files

The International Film Festival of India ended in Goa last night on a tense note after its jury chief described The Kashmir Files as “propaganda”.

Jury chief and Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, during the closing ceremony, said the entire jury was “disturbed and shocked” by The Kashmir Files, which “felt to us like propaganda, vulgar movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section in such a prestigious film festival”.

His remarks went viral on social media.

The Kashmir Files, directed by Vivek Agnihotri, is about the flight of the Kashmiri Pandits. It’s steeped in controversy (see here and here) but has been promoted by the governing BJP across the country. After Lapid’s remarks, Israel’s ambassador to India leapt to the film’s defence.

Ambassador Naor Gilon tweeted an open letter to Lapid, beginning, “YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED.” He said Lapid had “abused in the worst way” Indian hospitality and that it was “insensitive and presumptuous to speak about historic events before deeply studying them”. 

Gilon also suggested that Lapid “feel free to use the liberty to sound your criticism of what you dislike in Israel but no need to reflect your frustration on other countries”.

Meanwhile, a member of the IFFI jury, Sudipto Sen, tweeted that Lapid’s comments were “completely his personal opinion” and that the jury does not “indulge in any kind of political comments on any film”. Any political comments are “completely in personal capacity – nothing to do with the esteemed Jury Board”.

Sen is the director of The Kerala Story, which purports to tell the story of 32,000 girls from Kerala who were “forcibly converted” to Islam and inducted into ISIS. These claims were debunked by Alt News as being based on “misquotes”, “flawed math”, and “imaginary figures”.

But what’s the story of Kashmir Files? Newslaundry had attended three screenings of the film in three corners of the national capital region. Not everyone was swept away by the movie’s tide of hate, but there were plenty of impromptu bursts of “nationalism”. Read this report for all the details.

Also do watch our 2018 interview with the film’s director Vivek Agnihotri where he told Abhinandan Sekhri that “facts are not facts”.