Nadav Lapid, an Israeli filmmaker, was the film festival's jury head.
Israel's ambassador to India today came down heavily on a filmmaker from his country, who called 'The Kashmir Files' a "propaganda" and "vulgar movie" at the International Film Festival in Goa. Envoy Naor Gilon also apologized to India in an "open letter" on Twitter, a day after jury head Nadav Lapid slammed the movie at the closing ceremony of the film festival yesterday.
'The Kashmir Files', directed by Vivek Agnihotri, revolves around the exodus and killing of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley in 1990.
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: pic.twitter.com/8YpSQGMXIR
— Naor Gilon (@NaorGilon) November 29, 2022
"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," tweeted Lapid this morning.
Gilon said Lapid abused the Indian invitation to the judges' panel in the "worst way".
"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," he added.
The envoy said the Israelis should be humble as Indians are a lot of Israeli content, including Fauda TV series.
"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," he said in a long thread of tweets.
The jury board has distanced itself from jury head Lapid's remarks, calling them his "personal opinion.
