‘The Kashmir Files’ Row Robbed The Sheen Of A Film Festival Showcasing The Best Of World Cinema

Amid ‘The Kashmir Files’ row din, everything else was forgotten about IFFI’s valiant bid to give a booster shot to world cinema in the post-pandemic times and felicitate the great talents.

The focus should ideally have been on the Spanish coming-of-age drama, ‘I Have Electric Dreams’ that won the Golden Peacock award or, for that matter, on Vahid Mobasheri and Daniela Marin Navarro, who won the best actor and actress awards respectively.

There were many others basking in the glory such as Nader Saeivar (Best Director award for ‘No End’), Lav Diaz (Special Jury award for ‘When The Waves Are Gone’) or Asimina Proedrou whose ‘Behind The Haystacks’ earned her Best Debut Feature Film Of A Director.

There were many other highlights of the nine-day extravaganza where Spanish great Carlos Saura was conferred the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award and Dada Saheb Phalke award winner Asha Parekh was felicitated with much fanfare. Pity, it was neither the bouquet of acclaimed movies nor the bunch of accomplished filmmakers from across the globe who were talked about in the post-festival days. It was the chairperson of the international competition jury, who hogged all the limelight for singling out Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘The Kashmir Files’ as “vulgar propaganda” at the closing ceremony of the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa recently.

The 47-year-old Nadav Lapid, as chairperson of the international competition jury of IFFI, stirred the hornets’ nest by saying that Vivek Agnihotri’s film did not merit selection in such a prestigious festival. His remarks left many aghast, wondering in disbelief if he was the right person chosen to head the jury of such a prestigious festival. Some went to the extent of sniffing a conspiracy behind his selection and called for the heads to roll for not checking his credentials and political leaning before sending the invite to him.

On the face of it, Lapid was not a bad choice. He has been an Israeli filmmaker of repute ever since his first feature film, ‘Policeman’ won several awards, including the Jury Prize at Locarno in 2011 and the Best Film at BAFICI. His next, ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’, an Israeli-French collaboration also won more than 20 international awards, establishing his credentials further as a filmmaker. Lapid has also been a member of the jury of the International Critics’ Week Section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and is also a recipient of the prestigious Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres award, which is conferred in France on eminent personalities in the fields of art, culture and literature.

Going by his track record, he was a decent choice to head the jury. Nobody, including the mandarins in the Information and Broadcasting ministry, could have thought of him as someone who would end up spoiling their party towards the end of a festival that they had organised so meticulously under the auspices of IFFI and the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) in Goa for the first time after the Coronavirus pandemic.

Little did they realise that at the closing ceremony, Lapid would drop the bombshell by saying that he was disturbed and shocked to see ‘The Kashmir Files’ being screened at the film festival. “All of us were disturbed and shocked by the movie, ‘The Kashmir Files’. It felt to us like propaganda and vulgar movie that was inappropriate for an artistic and competitive section of such a prestigious film festival. I feel comfortable to openly share this feeling with you since the spirit of the festival can truly accept critical discussion which is essential for art and life," he said in his speech to a stunned audience.

As expected, Lapid’s remarks evoked diametrically opposite responses from different quarters. While one section patted him for boldly questioning the selection of Agnihotri’s controversial box-office blockbuster, others hit out at him for being insensitive to the long-standing sufferings of Kashmiri Pandits.

The controversy has since triggered a larger debate on whether Lapid exceeded the brief as the jury chairperson to openly criticise the selection of a film at a festival. “The jury ultimately chose the films that they liked. They were not under duress to choose or discard any particular film. Was he told by anyone at the festival to give an award to ‘The Kashmir Files’?” asked a filmmaker, preferring anonymity. “Ultimately, what Lapid did ended up bringing a film back into focus that had already been forgotten. It is unfortunate that everything else that happened at a well-organised film festival for more than a week was forgotten in the din of an unsavoury controversy.”