‘Zone of Interest’ producer ‘fundamentally disagrees’ with director Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech

nypost.com:

“The Zone of Interest,” revealed Friday that he does not support the acceptance speech made by director Jonathan Glazer at the 2024 Oscars.

In the speech, Glazer, 58 drew parallels between Nazi Germany and the ongoing conflict in Gaza. “I just fundamentally disagree with Jonathan on this,” Cohen, 50, told Yonit Levi and Jonathan Freedland on their “Unholy” podcast on Friday. “The war and the continuation of the war is the responsibility of Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization which continues to hold and abuse the hostages, which doesn’t use its tunnels to protect the innocent civilians of Gaza but uses it to hide themselves and allow Palestinians to die.”“It’s really important to recognize it’s upset a lot of people and a lot of people feel upset and angry about it,” he continued. “And I understand that anger frankly.”According to Cohen, he has been repeatedly contacted by several members of the Jewish community who viewed the film — which won Best International Feature and Best Sound — as an important piece of Holocaust education but is upset it is “mixed up with what’s going on now [in Gaza], whether that was Jonathan’s intention or not to do that.”While speaking to both Levi and Freedland, Cohen admitted that “the war is tragic and awful and the loss of civilian life is awful” and “[blames] Hamas for that.”He also stated that it is “regrettable” that the successful film has been overshadowed by controversy. “John spent 10 years making the film and has made something remarkable, but people are talking more this week about what he said for 30 seconds,” Cohen said. “And I think that’s regrettable because I’d love just the conversation that he focused on, on the film itself.