"I am ashamed": Israeli envoy apologises after Jewish filmmaker calls The Kashmir Files ‘vulgar propaganda’, read his open letter
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In what can be called a shocking yet pre-planned agenda, an Israeli filmmaker and a jury chief at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Nadav Lapid called the film "propaganda, vulgar" at the festival's closing ceremony on Monday. This erupted in controversy after which the cast of The Kashmir Files slammed the Israeli filmmaker. However, it was Israeli envoy to India Naor Gilon on Tuesday who came forward to lash out at the IFFI Jury Head and apologized for the conduct of his countryman at the festival.
This came after his video from the festival went viral in which Lapid is seen making controversial remarks about the film. "I would like to thank the head of the festival and the director of the programming for the cinematic richness of the programme, for its diversity, for its complexity. It was intense. We saw seven films in the debutant competition, and 15 films in the international competition, the front window of the festival. 14 out of them had cinematic qualities, defaults and evoked vivid discussions," he said in his speech.
"All of us were disturbed and shocked by the 15th film, The Kashmir Files. That felt like a propaganda, vulgar movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival. I feel totally comfortable to openly share these feelings here with you on this stage. In the spirit of this festival, can surely also accept a critical discussion, which is essential for art and life," he further said.
Lapid delivered his remarks before a number of dignitaries, including Union I&B Minister Anurag Thakur, as well as prominent actors such as Asha Parekh, Akshay Kumar, Ayushmann Khurrana and Rana Daggubati. Soon after this, Israeli Ambassador to India, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, Naor Golin on Tuesday called out the Left wing Jewish filmmaker. In an open letter Ambassador Golin shared on Twitter, he said that Lapid should be ashamed of himself.
In a series of tweets, he penned an open letter to Lapid as follows,
An open letter to #NadavLapid following his criticism of #KashmirFiles. It’s not in Hebrew because I wanted our Indian brothers and sisters to be able to understand. It is also relatively long so I’ll give you the bottom line first. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED. Here’s why:
An open letter to #NadavLapid following his criticism of #KashmirFiles. It’s not in Hebrew because I wanted our Indian brothers and sisters to be able to understand. It is also relatively long so I’ll give you the bottom line first. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED. Here’s why:
1. In Indian culture they say that a guest is like God. You have abused in the worst way the Indian invitation to chair the panel of judges at
@IFFIGoa as well as the trust, respect and warm hospitality they have bestowed on you.
2. Our Indian friends brought @lioraz and @issacharoff from @FaudaOfficial
in order to celebrate the love in #India towards #Fauda and #Israel. I suspect that this is maybe also one of the reasons they invited you as an Israeli and me as the ambassador of Israel.
I understand your need in retrospect to “justify” your behavior but I can’t understand why you told @ynetnews afterwards that the minister and I said on stage that there is similarity between our countries because “we fight a similar enemy and reside in a bad neighborhood”.
We did speak about the similarities and closeness between our countries. The minister spoke about his visits to Israel, it being a Hi-Tech nation and the potential of combining this with the film industry. I spoke about the fact that we grew up watching Indian films.
I also said that we should be humble when India, with such a great film culture, is consuming Israeli content (Fauda and more).
3. I’m no film expert but I do know that it’s insensitive and presumptuous to speak about historic events before deeply studying them and which are an open wound in India because many of the involved are still around and still paying a price.
4. As a son of a holocaust survivor, I was extremely hurt to see reactions in India to you that are doubting Schindler’s List, the Holocaust and worse. I unequivocally condemn such statements. There is no justification. It does show the sensitivity of the Kashmir issue here.
5. From your interview to Ynet the connection you make between your criticism of #KashmirFiles and your dislike to what is happening in Israeli politics was quite evident.
My suggestion. As you vocally did in the past, 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. I’m not sure that you have enough factual basis to make such comparisons. I know I don’t.
6. You will go back to Israel thinking that you are bold and “made a statement”. We, the representatives of Israel, would stay here. You should see our DM boxes following your “bravery” and what implications it may have on the team under my responsibility.
The friendship between the people and the states of India and Israel is very strong and will survive the damage you have inflicted. As a human being I feel ashamed and want to apologize to our hosts for the bad manner in which we repaid them for their generosity and friendship.
Referring to Lapid's remarks, Anupam Kher tweeted, "No matter how high the height of the lie is.. It is always small in comparison to the truth." He attached pictures from the movie with his tweet.
'The Kashmir Files' released earlier this year in theatres and it told the story about the Hindu genocide in 1990s and targetted killings of the Kashmiri Pandits and women were brutally raped, murdered and driven out of their homes. . The movie went on to become one of the highest-grossing Hindi movies of 2022 and Anupam Kher received acclaim for his performance.