Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid says he was “astonished” 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’s 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.
In a wide-ranging interview with Variety, 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. “I never felt like a victim,” he says.
The director of “Yes,” described by Variety as a “blistering attack on Israeli nationalism,” 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 – who previously won the Golden Bear in Berlin with “Synonyms” and the Jury Prize at Cannes with “Ahed’s Knee” — argues they become far more wary when Israel is involved. “It’s very easy to be brave when there’s no danger,” he says, claiming festivals risk little in backing Iranian dissidents because “there aren’t many mullahs at the festival gates,” 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 “terrified” about protests and political fallout, imagining “catastrophes for themselves,” before choosing “the comfortable option: let’s talk about something else.” Unlike his previous film, “Ahed’s Knee,” “Yes” didn’t world premiere in the official selection at Cannes but in a separate section that runs parralel to the festival, at Directors’ Fortnight.
