Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe Locarno Film Festival’s artistic director, Giona A. Nazzaro, has rejected calls to ban Leon Prudovsky’s “My Neighbor, Adolf,” which world premieres Aug.
4 in Locarno’s Piazza Grande, after a controversy was sparked regarding its funding. A group of Israeli filmmakers and artists have urged Locarno to drop the film due to an allegation that the Rabinovich Foundation, one of its funders, attached politically motivated conditions to the funding.
It was alleged that the foundation is now contractually obligating producers to agree that their films don’t include any statement or message that denies the “existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state,” according to a story published on Tuesday in the Hollywood Reporter.
Nazzaro told Variety in a statement issued Wednesday: “When we selected Leon Prudovsky’s ‘My Neighbor Adolf’ in April we chose a film that convinced us with its tremendous artistic qualities.
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