EXCLUSIVE: German broadcaster ARD has been accused of censorship after it decided to stop a planned broadcast of Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s 2017 film. Mandatory because of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The film’s German co-producer Titus Kreyenberg told Deadline Mandatory was to be broadcast next Sunday (November 19), while the program planning had been set for months and had already been announced in the TV schedules.
“It was removed from the schedule. “We were told internally that it was decided that it was not the right time to show a Palestinian film,” said Kreyenberg, who works under the banner of Berlin and Cologne-based Unafilm. Octopus skin And A woman.
Deadline contacted ARD – a group of ten German regional public broadcasters – and Hamburg-based NDR, which supported the production. The networks have not yet responded.
Jacir’s drama Mandatory is a gentle comedy that captures the reality of Palestinians living within Israel’s borders.
Set in the city of Nazareth, the film stars Mohammad Bakri, one of Palestine’s best-known actors, as a father who reunites with his estranged son (played by real-life son Saleh Bakri) when the latter returns from his adopted homeland of Italy. for his love sister’s wedding.
Together, father and son begin the ritual of handing out invitations to friends and family, arguing and reuniting in the process.
The decision to withdraw the film comes nearly six weeks after Hamas’ deadly terror attacks in southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took more than 240 people hostage and into the Gaza Strip.
Since then, Israel’s military retaliatory campaign against Gaza, aimed at eradicating Hamas and freeing its hostages, has killed more than 11,500 people and displaced 70% of its 2.3 million residents, according to the Hamas-run health authority. The resonance of the conflict is felt worldwide.
Kreyenberg said concerns were also raised about the fact that Mohammad Bakri was also the director of the 20-year-old documentary. Jenin, Jenin.
The controversial work describes the events surrounding the Israeli army’s invasion of the West Bank city of Jenin in April 2022 following a series of suicide attacks in Israel from an exclusively Palestinian perspective.
“I wrote to the principal and pointed out that regardless of how you feel about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, eventually the fighting will stop and both people need to sit down and have a dialogue,” Kreyenberg said. “This film is about dialogue, a dialogue between father and son. Film can support dialogue.”
Mandatory would have aired late at night from 23:50 to 01:23 CET on the ARD flagship The first made available in Germany for a limited period via the catch-up service. Deadline reviewed and removed the online schedule.
Kreyenberg said the show was programmed months ago as part of a double feature about fathers and sons alongside the hybrid work of Danish director Anders Østergaard. winter trip.
The Arizona-based docudrama, in which the late Swiss actor Bruno Ganz plays a retired Jewish furniture salesman who tells his son the story of his escape from Nazi Germany, aired as planned on November 12.
“It is amazing that ARD continued to broadcast winter trip and not MandatoryFor me, this is a form of censorship,” Kreyenberg said.
Mandatory The film made its world premiere in competition at the 2017 Locarno Film Festival, where it won four awards, including the Special Prize, and won a further 36 international awards, including Best Film at the Mar Del Plata, Dubai, Amiens, DC- film festival, Kerala and the jury mention at the London BFI festival.
Jacir told Deadline that she was “completely shocked” by ARD’s decision to cancel the film.
“A film about a father and son delivering wedding invitations. “At this dark moment in history, it is shameful that ARD chooses to suppress the voices of artists instead of providing a space where we can share our stories, our culture and our dreams,” she said.
“It is extremely disturbing that in 2023 Germany is engaging in censorship and suppression of independent voices. It is the opposite of everything a free world should be.”
Mandatory was produced by Ossama Bawardi at Philistine Films, a joint venture with Jacir.
Co-producers were Jacques Bidou and Marianne Dumoulin from JBA Productions in Paris; Kreyenberg, under the banner of his second Hamburg company Klinkerfilm; Katrin Pors at Snowglobe from Denmark, Ruben Thorkildsen at Ape&Bjørn from Norway and Georges Schoucair at Schortcut Films from Beirut as well as Sawsan Asfari, Cristina Gallego and Maya Sanbar.
Linus Günther, who now runs Klinkerfilm, was a junior producer and Raja Dubayah was an associate producer.
Source: Deadline
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
