{"id":2452,"date":"2026-06-18T18:06:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2452"},"modified":"2026-06-18T18:06:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:06:59","slug":"israeli-director-nadav-lapid-on-cultural-boycott-backlash-support-from-natalie-portman-and-the-future-of-political-cinema-ill-keep-trying-to-touch-the-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2452","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Director Nadav Lapid on Cultural Boycott Backlash, Support From Natalie Portman and the Future of Political Cinema: \u2018I\u2019ll Keep Trying to Touch the Fire\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tIsraeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid says he was \u201castonished\u201d by the wave of support he received from Natalie Portman, Justine Triet, Jacques Audiard and hundreds of other film figures after the boycott campaign that led him to withdraw from Marseille\u2019s FID Festival, where he had been invited as a juror. He was even more surprised to see his case turn, within days, into one of the most fiercely debated cultural flashpoints of the year.<\/p>

Read more \u2018The Naturalist\u2019 Series Adaptation in the Works at ABC From \u2018CSI\u2019 Alums (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tIn a wide-ranging interview with Variety<\/em>, Lapid, who has lived in self-imposed exile in France since 2021, reflects on the boycott campaign that engulfed FID Marseille, the filmmakers who withdrew their works in protest of his invitation, and the open letters that followed in his defense. Far from casting himself as a casualty, Lapid argues the uproar became a distraction from the issues at the heart of the debate. \u201cI never felt like a victim,\u201d he says.\n\n\t\n\n\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe director of \u201cYes,\u201d described by Variety<\/em> as a \u201cblistering attack on Israeli nationalism,\u201d denounces the growing reluctance of major cultural institutions to finance or program films tackling the Israel-Palestine conflict. While international festivals routinely champion dissident filmmakers from countries such as Iran and Russia, Lapid argues they become far more wary when Israel is involved. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to be brave when there\u2019s no danger,\u201d he says, claiming festivals risk little in backing Iranian dissidents because \u201cthere aren\u2019t many mullahs at the festival gates,\u201d while criticism of Russia generally unfolds within a broad consensus. The Israel-Palestine conflict, by contrast, divides societies and institutions alike, and festival organizers have become \u201cterrified\u201d about protests and political fallout, imagining \u201ccatastrophes for themselves,\u201d before choosing \u201cthe comfortable option: let\u2019s talk about something else.\u201d By the way, the same words work for many distributors.\n\n\t\n<\/p>\n

\n\tYet, Lapid rejects the idea that the boycott targeting him stems from antisemitism, framing it instead as a \u201cstate of mind\u201d born of horror, the lack of political sanctions against Israel and a search for moral purity. For him, the campaign was counterproductive precisely because it diverted attention away from the war in Gaza and from the political forces he sees as the real beneficiaries of such divisions.<\/p>\n

\n\tLapid also pushes back against assumptions surrounding the financing of \u201cYes,\u201d stressing that the Israel Film Fund, which backed the film, is currently an independent body rather than a government instrument. He notes that the fund has long supported films sharply critical of Israeli policy, including his own, even as Israel\u2019s culture minister publicly attacked \u201cYes\u201d and vowed he would never again receive public money. But he also warns that the fund\u2019s independence is increasingly fragile amid what he terms Israel\u2019s ongoing \u201cfascistization.\u201d \u201cIn a week or two, it may no longer be true,\u201d he says of artistic freedom.<\/p>\n

\n\tMore broadly, Lapid argues that the controversy around \u201cYes\u201d has exposed a crisis in the financing and distribution of politically charged cinema, including in Europe. \u201cAgainst its will, the film revealed a great deal about the state of cinema,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for his own future, Lapid remains defiant, even as sources of financing and festival platforms risk becoming scarcer. \u201cAs long as I have something to say, I\u2019ll keep making films,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ll keep trying to touch the fire \u2014 I was born where it\u2019s always burning.\u201d\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
\nNews of this boycott and the letters from French and international talent in support of you have generated huge interest. Were you surprised by the reaction?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\nVery. I was astonished by the scale \u2014 it was everywhere, in France, in the United States. I didn\u2019t expect it and didn\u2019t aspire to it. It wasn\u2019t a move on my part; I\u2019d gladly have done without it. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnce it blew up, did you hear from the festival?<\/span> <\/h5>\n

\nYes. I think they ended up signing the open letter, too. They tried to sense which way the wind was blowing \u2014 a bit like a cartoon character caught between two dangers. They understood that hosting certain guests is complicated, and at the same time they were frightened by the pressure. Now I think they\u2019re trying to make up for a certain lack of determination. Could they fix it \u2014 reschedule the masterclass, screen the film again? I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the question. I don\u2019t believe it was the cancellation of my masterclass that caused all this noise \u2014 and I\u2019d have no desire to talk about mise-en-sc\u00e8ne in an atmosphere like this. A week has passed. When it happened it was crushing, but a lot of water has since flowed under the bridge. In any case, I never felt like a victim. I don\u2019t like filmmakers taking themselves too easily for victims. When some boycotters complain they don\u2019t get enough press, that\u2019s victimization too. I\u2019m solid, I was well supported, and I have no appetite for crying out in pain. For me, the real question is what lesson to draw.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nSo what\u2019s the lesson from all this for you?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tThat we should all be united by the same urgency: the catastrophe happening right now in Palestine, in Israel, in Gaza, and the rise of the far right almost everywhere. That emergency obliges all of us \u2014 critical filmmakers, activists, big and small festivals \u2014 to be more courageous. Yet the big festivals are often extremely fearful. Faced with the most burning conflict of our time, they adopt an ostrich attitude: they look away and say they don\u2019t want the noise falling on their heads. That\u2019s narcissism. They protect the well-being of their festival \u2014 but the festival isn\u2019t the subject. The subject is cinema, the world, the truth. They never understood their role.<\/p>\n

\nThese festivals have no problem programming Iranian or Russian dissidents. But the moment it touches Israel, it\u2019s different. Why?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tPlease don\u2019t push me toward the antisemitism explanation \u2014 I don\u2019t think these people are antisemites.It\u2019s a question of risk. When you program an Iranian dissident, there aren\u2019t many mullahs at the festival gates; you won\u2019t face a demonstration. Same with Russia \u2014 there\u2019s a war, but everyone\u2019s on the same side. This conflict is burning because it creates rifts everywhere; people project their own histories onto it. It\u2019s very easy to be brave when there\u2019s no danger. The festivals get terrified, imagine catastrophes for themselves, and choose the comfortable option: let\u2019s talk about something else.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe cultural boycott is, for me, a complicated story \u2014 I\u2019m not categorically opposed to it. But it\u2019s been hugely reinforced by the near-absence of any real sanctions on Israel. While we debate my masterclass at the FID, the biggest arms fair in the world warmly receives Israeli dealers showing off products whose effectiveness they\u2019ve just demonstrated in Gaza and Lebanon. That puts everything back in proportion: we struggle over 30,000 articles about something marginal while the real horror unfolds without opposition \u2014 and the institutions manufacture a false silence that only stokes the anger.<\/p>\n

\nWould more films like \u201cYes\u201d in competition at festivals raise the level of debate?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tIt might come with sharp reactions, but it\u2019s always better that these things happen than that they\u2019re muted. And as for the activists \u2014 I have trouble even saying \u201cpro-Palestinian,\u201d because what does that mean in this context? Cancelling my master class is a pro-Palestinian gesture? I\u2019ve been terrified for years by what\u2019s happening in Palestine and I took part in political activity, demonstration in the territories, I\u2019m not try to glorify myself in anyway and of course you never do enough. I\u2019ve always believed Israel should be sanctioned and I declared it in interviews from the first time someone handed me a mic, and I\u2019ve always used the words apartheid and genocide, because I believe them. But collapsing into a debate about purity is distressing. There\u2019s an obsession with purity instead of courage or urgency \u2014 \u201cthere\u2019s such-and-such a percentage of funding, or there isn\u2019t\u201d \u2014 while we share more or less the same ideas. If I\u2019d been able to talk with the people who pulled their films from FID Marseille, we\u2019d have found we agree on 99.9%. What gets all the attention is the duel between me and a few of them. I\u2019m grateful to the film world that rallied for me, but I find it sad it doesn\u2019t rally as much for genuine reasons \u2014 and in the end, it\u2019s the real villains who rub their hands and laugh.<\/p>

Read more Jelly Roll, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz Among This Summer\u2019s \u2018Jimmy Kimmel Live\u2019 Guest Hosts (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n

\nWho\u2019s that?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tThe government, of course.\n\n\t\n<\/p>\n

\nThey don\u2019t care about the cultural boycott. Do they?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tThey don\u2019t. But on right-wing Israeli TV, they treated this as good news. It\u2019s the same for the far right in France \u2014 it hands weapons to the bad guys. I\u2019ll say it again: I don\u2019t think the people who boycotted me are antisemites. There\u2019s antisemitism and racism everywhere, but fundamentally this isn\u2019t a conflict between antisemites and an Israeli. It\u2019s a state of mind, the consequence of the horror that happened and the world\u2019s inertia toward it \u2014 one seeking a form of moral purity, a way of avoiding looking the dragon straight in the eye.<\/p>\n

\nIf they boycott you out of moral purity, can\u2019t they see you already share their opinions?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know how many have actually seen my films. All these people \u2014 not stupid, of course \u2014 say, \u201cIt\u2019s not the time to watch a film by an Israeli.\u201d It reminds me of a filmmaker quoted anonymously in Le Monde saying \u201cit\u2019s no longer the time for nuance.\u201d That distresses me, because it echoes Israeli thinking \u2014 \u201cI know children aren\u2019t guilty, but it\u2019s not the time for nuance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIt\u2019s a kind of essentialism \u2014 like racism.<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tExactly. And it\u2019s childish: they won\u2019t make Israel disappear by refusing to watch. It becomes a narcissistic act \u2014 the story becomes about you rather than the real state of things. You can\u2019t talk about Israel without talking about Palestine; in all my films there\u2019s this presence of Palestinians accompanying Israelis everywhere, especially when they try to make them disappear. They accompany the Israelis like shadows, like echoes. Our stories are tragically bound to one another. \u201cI don\u2019t want to look\u201d is a childish attitude.<\/p>\n

\nDo you think you can still finance your films and show them at festivals in the current environment?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know. Someone sent me a review calling \u201cYes\u201d one of the most divisive films of the decade, comparing it to \u201cThe Deer Hunter\u201d and \u201cApocalypse Now\u201d \u2014 films that came out as the real atrocities were unfolding. It keeps making noise because it touches the fire, and I\u2019ll keep trying to touch the fire \u2014 I was born where it\u2019s always burning. I can\u2019t say what will happen in Venice, Cannes, Berlin or Toronto, but I\u2019ll keep using cinema to speak the truth of the world.<\/p>\n

\nYou tried to fund \u201cYes\u201d elsewhere and ultimately worked with the Israel Film Fund \u2014 which is independent and finances all kinds of cinema.<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tYes. People see \u201cIsrael Film Fund,\u201d or worse the Ministry of Culture logo, and imagine Netanyahu\u2019s assistant is reading the screenplays. That\u2019s not the case. I say it with worry, because Israel is in a state of permanent fascistization and artistic freedom there is not a given \u2014 in a week or two, it may no longer be true. But the fund\u2019s director is courageous and fights to keep making films the government doesn\u2019t like at all. After the film came out, the Minister of Culture put out a video saying I\u2019d harmed \u201cour pure and sanctified soldiers,\u201d and promised that never again would I get a single cent in Israel. The government no longer even bothers to disguise itself as a democracy. When we used the funding, exactly three people read the screenplay \u2014 the fund\u2019s director, a director and a critic, none tied to Israeli institutions. They financed a film some European institutions were afraid to back.\n\n\t\n<\/p>\n

\nYou got some pushback from European institutions? <\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tYes. Some people asked me, either directly or indirectly: \u201cIsn\u2019t the film too anti-Israel?\u201d When we sent the synopsis to certain institutions, we started erasing words from the synopsis \u2014 like communist-era censorship, so \u201cgenocidal\u201d became an \u201cimpulse of vengeance,\u201d then \u201cvengeance\u201d was erased too. The people preoccupied with Israel\u2019s image came from European institutions, not Israeli cinema. So the question should be framed differently: how do we finance radical, politically and cinematically bold films today? Must they be made with whatever spare change an uncle will throw in? Or is there still someone in cinema who understands these films are more important than ever?<\/p>\n

\nWould you expect more people to reach out to<\/strong> finance your movies? <\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tI\u2019m OK; I hope I\u2019ll figure it out. I don\u2019t want to reduce it to personal terms. But \u201cYes\u201d is a film about cowardice within a state at its gravest moment \u2014 and in a way the situation around it displayed that same cowardice. Against its will, the film revealed a great deal about the state of cinema.<\/p>\n

\nIn practical terms, if you can no longer get funds from the Israel Film Fund, how will you keep going?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know how much validity the minister\u2019s statement has, or how long the fund can stay independent. Money is always a bit dirty \u2014 nobody hands it to you from paradise. As long as I have something to say, I\u2019ll keep making films. But the moment there\u2019s no real independence left in Israeli funding \u2014 and I believe it\u2019ll come \u2014 I won\u2019t take it. I already don\u2019t take money from the other main fund, the Rabinovich, because it\u2019s become too close to the regime. It comes back to nuance.<\/p>\n

\nIsn\u2019t this boycott and those fears decimating Israeli cinema?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tIt affects all cinema, not just Israeli cinema \u2014 that\u2019s the problem. The question of how we make radical films concerns France, America, everywhere. It\u2019s too easy to talk only about conflicts where there\u2019s no danger and then boast about being politically engaged.\n\n\t\n<\/p>\n

\nSo you\u2019re not about to start making romantic comedies?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tHonestly, I\u2019d adore it. \u201cYes\u201d is also a romantic comedy, among other things. A love film, even.<\/p>\n

\nWill you keep making films that are as politically charged, though?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t have that level of self-awareness. When I finished \u201cYes,\u201d I sent the screenplay to my producer and wrote, \u201cThis time it\u2019s a romantic comedy, a bit sweet \u2014 at least maybe it\u2019ll sell tickets.\u201d I never set out to make a political film. I make films about life and where I grew up where there\u2019s no distinction between the political and the personal; that distinction is artificial. My films are always a wild mixture of the two.<\/p>

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\nAre you working on your next film?<\/strong> <\/h5>\n

\n\tYes, I\u2019m writing it. I hope it\u2019ll be all right.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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