The award-winning film bollywood director Mira Nair snubbed her invitation as a “Guest of Honour” for Haifa festival in Israel.
Nair, tweeted a series of messages on Friday “I was just invited to Israel as a guest of honour at the Haifa International Film Festival with “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.”
“I will not be going to Israel at this time. I will go to Israel when the walls come down. I will go to Israel when occupation is gone,” she said in one tweet.
In the next tweet, she said, “I will go to Israel when the state does not privilege one religion over another. I will go to Israel when Apartheid is over.”
Finally, she tweeted, "I will go to Israel when Apartheid is over. I will go to Israel, soon. I stand with the [Palestinian Campaign] for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the larger Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement.”
Her messages are clear as she is supporting the Palestinian campaign for a cultural boycott of Israel in protest of the 46-years of occupation of the West Bank in East Jerusalem and Gaza.
Nair has joined the likes of Stephen Hawking, Ken Loach, and Peter Brook and the Bouffes du Nord theatre group in taking a stand against the Israeli government’s policy towards Palestinians. PACBI first asked filmmakers to withdraw from the Haifa festival in 2004, partly inspired by the 2002 boycott by the UK. producers’ Gaslight, who had stated that their invited documentary “Sunday” had alerted them to “the ethical, political, and long-term military folly of governments attempting to impose military solutions on civil and human rights problems.” –
The 30-year old Haifa festival is to be held in September. It is known to be Israel's leading cinematic event. It is also claimed as the Jewish-Arab city of Haifa on the Mediterranean coast.
According to Pnina Blair, artistic director of the Haifa Film Festival,She is opposed to cultural boycotts of any kind and the festival “is an exemplar of pluralism and coexistence, and our program reflects this approach.”
Nair’s refusal and support was "very valuable" stated PACBI. As Artists, performers and academics routinely went under pressure from pro-boycott campaigners to refuse invitations to visit, lectures or perform in Israel.
The 29 th annual Haifa International Film Festival is scheduled to take place in September.
A number of prominent artists and academics have cancelled their planned visits to Israel in the past in response to developments in the region.
Nair’s Salaam Bombay! in 1988 staring Shafiq Syed, Tara lasrado and Hansa Vithal won her the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, the National Board of Review Award for Top Foreign Film, the Golden Camera and Audience Awards at the Cannes Film Festival
Nair has worked on different genres of movies with different morals and stories being told. She has also directed Mississippi Masala staring Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury. Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The Namesake with Kal Penn, Tabu, Irrfan Khan. The Reluctant Fundamentalist with Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson and Liev Schreiber.
Recently productions are underway for a musical version of Monsoon Wedding, original movie stared Naseeruddin Shah ,Lillete Dubey and many more.
Sources:www.blouinartinfo.com,@mirapaglinair
Pictures: dna.com, Getty images
Feature Images: www.dna.com
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