India

‘Shocked and disturbed by vulgar propaganda’: IFFI head on The Kashmir Files

The Kashmir Files poster.

Goa: Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, who is the Jury head of IFFI (International Film Festival of India) 2022, has called director Vivek Agnihotri’s film ‘The Kashmir Files’ a “propganda, vulgar film”.

The IFFI head said that he was “shocked” to see the film in the competition section of such a prestigious film festival. The 53rd edition of the International Film Festival of India ended on Monday in Goa.

“We were, all of us, disturbed and shocked by the 15th film: The Kashmir Files. That felt to us like propaganda, 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,” Nadav said during his address to the audience.

This year in May, the controversial film was banned by Singapore, which has cited concerns over its “potential to cause enmity between different communities”.

“The film will be refused classification for its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and the depictions of Hindus being persecuted in the ongoing conflict in Kashmir,” the Singapore government had said in a statement in May, 2022.

“These representations have the potential to cause enmity between different communities, and disrupt social cohesion and religious harmony in our multi-racial and multi-religious society,” the statement added.

The city-state said under its film classification guidelines, “any material that is denigrating to racial or religious communities in Singapore” will be refused classification.

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