IFFI foreign jury members stand by Nadav Lapid's remarks: "Weren't taking a political stand..."

Jinko Gotoh, Javier Angulo Barturen, and Pascale Chavance—the other three foreign jury members along with Nadav Lapid for the 53rd IFFI's International Competition—have defended and stood by Nadav's remarks criticizing The Kashmir Files.

Earlier, the fifth jury member, Indian filmmaker Sudipto Sen, had distanced himself from Nadav's comments, wherein he'd called The Kashmir Files a 'propaganda, vulgar movie'. Sudipto also claimed the view was not shared by the jury board. 

In a joint statement, producer Jinko Gotoh of the USA, film editor Pascale Chavance of France, and documentary filmmaker and critic Javier Angulo Barturen of Spain wrote - "At the festival's closing ceremony, Nadav Lapid, the jury's president, made a statement on behalf of the jury members, stating: We were all of us disturbed and shocked by the 15th film, The Kashmir Files, that felt to us like a propaganda, vulgar movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival.

We stand by his statement."

The jury members further clarified that they were not taking a political stance but making an 'artistic statement'. 

"And to clarify, we were not taking a political stand on the film's content. We were making an artistic statement, and it saddens us greatly to see the festival platform being used for politics and subsequent personal attacks on Nadav. That was never the intention of the jury."

Nadav's statements during his closing ceremony speech at IFFI stirred a political and diplomatic furore on social media. In subsequent interviews, the Israeli filmmaker apologized for hurting people's sentiments but not retracted his criticism of the film. 

Directed by Vivek Agnihotri, The Kashmir Files is a fictional retelling of the exodus and targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s.