The Seret International Film Festival, an Israeli film event hosted in cities across the globe, has criticized its longtime UK partners Picturehouse and Curzon Cinemas for backing out of this year’s event over what organizers described as “safety concerns.”
The Seret Film Festival was launched in 2012 by Odelia Haroush, who accused Picturehouse and Curzon in a Times of London interview of enabling “cancel culture.”
“Their role should be to show films and culture and not cancel culture,” Haroush told the paper. “Especially now; don’t cancel Palestinian culture, Russian culture, Ukrainian culture, or Israeli culture.”
The Times reports that Picturehouse and Curzon pulled out of hosting due to “safety fears.” We reached out to both boutique chains for comment. Neither were available to discuss the matter. Haroush also told the paper that the festival had to cancel screenings in Cambridge due to the “political atmosphere with the university and students there.
The Seret Film Festival was launched in 2012 by Odelia Haroush, who accused Picturehouse and Curzon in a Times of London interview of enabling “cancel culture.”
“Their role should be to show films and culture and not cancel culture,” Haroush told the paper. “Especially now; don’t cancel Palestinian culture, Russian culture, Ukrainian culture, or Israeli culture.”
The Times reports that Picturehouse and Curzon pulled out of hosting due to “safety fears.” We reached out to both boutique chains for comment. Neither were available to discuss the matter. Haroush also told the paper that the festival had to cancel screenings in Cambridge due to the “political atmosphere with the university and students there.
- 4/9/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Israel’s largest film fund, the Rabinovitz Foundation’s Israel Cinema Project, has bowed to pressure from the country’s director’s guild to drop a requirement that filmmakers submitting projects for funding agree to what has been termed a “loyalty pledge” that their films does not “harm the good name of the State of Israel.”
The clause has been part of funding agreements from the Israel Cinema Project since 2017 and refers to a 2011 amendment to Israeli legislation called the “foundations of the budget law.” The law gives Israel’s finance ministry the authority to cut state funding for an institution if it supports activities judged to deny the “existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state,” that mark “[Israeli] Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning” or that “harm the honor of the country’s flag” among other criteria.
The clause has been part of funding agreements from the Israel Cinema Project since 2017 and refers to a 2011 amendment to Israeli legislation called the “foundations of the budget law.” The law gives Israel’s finance ministry the authority to cut state funding for an institution if it supports activities judged to deny the “existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state,” that mark “[Israeli] Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as a day of mourning” or that “harm the honor of the country’s flag” among other criteria.
- 3/8/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Following the world premiere of “My Neighbor Adolf” on the Piazza Grande in Locarno, Beta Cinema has sold the dark comedy to Vendetta Films, which will bring the Udo Kier and David Hayman starrer to cinemas across Australia and New Zealand in the first quarter of next year.
Prior to Locarno, Beta Cinema sold the film to Hungary (Cinetel) and Switzerland (Praesens Film), while deals for North America (Cohen Media Group), U.K. and Ireland (Signature Entertainment), Italy (I Wonder), South Korea (Lumix Media) and Japan (Tohokushinsha Film) had been revealed before.
The film is set in Colombia in 1960, just a few days after the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann was caught by Mossad agents in Argentina. Polsky, played by Hayman, is a lonely and grumpy old man, living in the remote Colombian countryside. He is a survivor of the Holocaust. He spends his days playing chess and tending his beloved rosebushes.
Prior to Locarno, Beta Cinema sold the film to Hungary (Cinetel) and Switzerland (Praesens Film), while deals for North America (Cohen Media Group), U.K. and Ireland (Signature Entertainment), Italy (I Wonder), South Korea (Lumix Media) and Japan (Tohokushinsha Film) had been revealed before.
The film is set in Colombia in 1960, just a few days after the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann was caught by Mossad agents in Argentina. Polsky, played by Hayman, is a lonely and grumpy old man, living in the remote Colombian countryside. He is a survivor of the Holocaust. He spends his days playing chess and tending his beloved rosebushes.
- 9/12/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
In “My Neighbor Adolf,” a Polish Holocaust survivor living in South America suspects that the belligerent German who’s just moved in next door could be none other than der Führer himself. How could that be? Hitler shot himself in his bunker at the end of the war. Or did he? Director Leon Prudovsky’s middling mind game pits David Hayman and prolific German character actor Udo Kier against one another in what could have been a sly, “Sleuth”-style two-hander. But the tonally uneven movie isn’t prepared for its own premise: If the man’s hunch is correct, what are the implications of making friends/enemies with evil?
Years earlier, Malek Polsky (Hayman) sat opposite Hitler at the World Chess Championship in Berlin. He swears he’d recognize “those dead blue eyes” anywhere — and now they’re staring right back at him over the rickety wooden fence that separates their properties.
Years earlier, Malek Polsky (Hayman) sat opposite Hitler at the World Chess Championship in Berlin. He swears he’d recognize “those dead blue eyes” anywhere — and now they’re staring right back at him over the rickety wooden fence that separates their properties.
- 8/5/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Israeli director Leon Prudovsky, whose film “My Neighbor, Adolf” world premieres Thursday in Locarno Film Festival’s Piazza Grande, will next be making a feature version of his 2012 short “Welcome, and our Condolences.”
The project, titled “Our People,” is a multi-character tragicomedy, centering on a Russian Jewish family traveling to Israel in the early 1990s. On the plane their grandmother dies, which places them in a tricky situation: they are worried that they will lose their right to settle in Israel, so decide to pretend she’s still alive. Prudovsky himself was born in Russia and migrated to Israel at that time.
“My Neighbor, Adolf” is also a tragicomedy. It stars David Hayman, whose credits include “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” “Sid and Nancy” and TV series “Taboo,” as Polsky, a grumpy old man living in the wilds of Colombia in 1960.
Polsky, who survived the Holocaust and hates all Germans,...
The project, titled “Our People,” is a multi-character tragicomedy, centering on a Russian Jewish family traveling to Israel in the early 1990s. On the plane their grandmother dies, which places them in a tricky situation: they are worried that they will lose their right to settle in Israel, so decide to pretend she’s still alive. Prudovsky himself was born in Russia and migrated to Israel at that time.
“My Neighbor, Adolf” is also a tragicomedy. It stars David Hayman, whose credits include “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” “Sid and Nancy” and TV series “Taboo,” as Polsky, a grumpy old man living in the wilds of Colombia in 1960.
Polsky, who survived the Holocaust and hates all Germans,...
- 8/4/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Locarno kicked off its latest edition on Wednesday evening with the international festival premiere of David Leitch’s latest action-comedy Bullet Train and a surprise video call from Brad Pitt to celebrate the event’s 75th anniversary.
The packed opening night celebration in Locarno’s famed Piazza Grande square was a return to form for the festival after a full cancellation in 2020 and a slimmed-down version last year.
Bullet Train received hearty applause and cheers from festivalgoers as the screening was introduced with a surprise video call from the movie’s star Brad Pitt.
“Congratulations to the whole festival crew on your 75th anniversary. It’s a fantastic achievement and what an honor it is for us to be a part of this festival with our movie Bullet Train,” he said.
Pitt stars as an experienced assassin whose first day back at work is complicated by a series of other...
The packed opening night celebration in Locarno’s famed Piazza Grande square was a return to form for the festival after a full cancellation in 2020 and a slimmed-down version last year.
Bullet Train received hearty applause and cheers from festivalgoers as the screening was introduced with a surprise video call from the movie’s star Brad Pitt.
“Congratulations to the whole festival crew on your 75th anniversary. It’s a fantastic achievement and what an honor it is for us to be a part of this festival with our movie Bullet Train,” he said.
Pitt stars as an experienced assassin whose first day back at work is complicated by a series of other...
- 8/3/2022
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
A group of Israeli filmmakers and artists are urging the Locarno Film Festival to drop the world premiere screening of Israeli feature My Neighbor Adolf due to concerns over what the group is calling “racist” and “explicitly political” conditions attached to its funding, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The tragicomedy, from Russian-born Israeli director Leon Prudovsky (Five Hours From Paris), is currently set to get a screening in Locarno on Thursday, Aug. 4, the second day of the festival, but the group — which includes Oscar-nominated director Guy Davidi (Five Broken Cameras, upcoming Venice-bowing doc Innocence) — has signed a letter calling on this event to be pulled because of the film’s support by the Rabinovich Foundation’s Israel Cinema Project, Israel’s largest film fund.
The move comes a day after Pacbi, the cultural arm of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a Palestinian-led...
A group of Israeli filmmakers and artists are urging the Locarno Film Festival to drop the world premiere screening of Israeli feature My Neighbor Adolf due to concerns over what the group is calling “racist” and “explicitly political” conditions attached to its funding, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The tragicomedy, from Russian-born Israeli director Leon Prudovsky (Five Hours From Paris), is currently set to get a screening in Locarno on Thursday, Aug. 4, the second day of the festival, but the group — which includes Oscar-nominated director Guy Davidi (Five Broken Cameras, upcoming Venice-bowing doc Innocence) — has signed a letter calling on this event to be pulled because of the film’s support by the Rabinovich Foundation’s Israel Cinema Project, Israel’s largest film fund.
The move comes a day after Pacbi, the cultural arm of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a Palestinian-led...
- 8/2/2022
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Beta Cinema has acquired world sales rights outside Israel and Poland for “My Neighbor Adolf,” the new film by Leon Prudovsky (“Five Hours from Paris”), starring David Hayman (“The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”) and Udo Kier (“The Painted Bird”).
Set in Colombia in the 1960s, the film is centred on Polsky (Hayman), a lonely and grumpy Holocaust survivor living in the countryside, who suspects that his new neighbor is Adolf Hitler (Kier). When nobody believes him, he sets off on a detective mission to uncover the truth, soon discovering that the only way to prove it is to befriend his mysterious neighbor.
Principal photography began in Colombia on Jan. 28 and will wrap Feb. 28.
The English-language film is produced by Haim Mecklberg, Estee Yacov-Mecklberg and Ygal Mograbi of 2-Team Productions, Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska and Staszek Dziedzic of Film Produkcja (“Mr. Jones”), in co-production with Juan Pablo Lasserre, Diego Conejero and Julio...
Set in Colombia in the 1960s, the film is centred on Polsky (Hayman), a lonely and grumpy Holocaust survivor living in the countryside, who suspects that his new neighbor is Adolf Hitler (Kier). When nobody believes him, he sets off on a detective mission to uncover the truth, soon discovering that the only way to prove it is to befriend his mysterious neighbor.
Principal photography began in Colombia on Jan. 28 and will wrap Feb. 28.
The English-language film is produced by Haim Mecklberg, Estee Yacov-Mecklberg and Ygal Mograbi of 2-Team Productions, Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska and Staszek Dziedzic of Film Produkcja (“Mr. Jones”), in co-production with Juan Pablo Lasserre, Diego Conejero and Julio...
- 2/6/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
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