Jury chairman and Israeli director Nadav Lapid objected to the inclusion of ‘Kashmir Files’ in the 53rd Goa Film Festival. He made a public criticism at the closing session of the fair. There were 15 films in the competition in the international category. He said that after seeing Kashmir Files, he was disturbed and shocked and felt it was a ‘propaganda and vulgar’ film.
In the words of Nadav Lapid: ‘There were 15 films in the international film category. Out of which 14 films were of excellent quality and full of cinematic value. It led to a great deal of discussion. But it was the 15th movie that shocked and disturbed us all – The Kashmir Files. We felt it was a propaganda vulgar film. It felt like a crude film out of place in the competition section of such a prestigious film festival. He added that he has no difficulty in saying this publicly and needs to be evaluated critically.
‘Propaganda, Vulgar movie’; IFFI jury chief on kashmir files