Israeli Culture Minister Rages Against Film Selected for HUMAN Festival
The Israeli film TWO KIDS A DAY is set to participate in the international competition programme of the Norwegian documentary film festival. The film faces strong reactions at home.
HUMAN International Documentary Film Festival has confirmed that the documentary Two Kids A Day (Israel, 2022) has been selected for its international competition, which focuses on current human rights issues.
The controversial documentary is about how two Palestinian children are arrested every day by Israeli occupation forces – on average. The film has previously received state funding for its production, however the new Culture Minister Miki Zohar is now threatening sanctions against the film.
In an e-mail to the Norwegian festival, the filmmakers say that the Culture Minister is threatening to take back the financial support the film has received. The reason for this is that the film paints a negative image of the state of Israel. Zohar became Culture Minister at the very end of 2022, when Benjamin Netanyahu formed his sixth government as Prime Minister.
According to Deadline Hollywood, Zohar has made the following statement to local media:
The Ministry of Culture and Sports under my leadership will not finance works that harm the good name of the State of Israel, both in Israel and in the world.”
The independent, Palestinian-Israeli news magazine +972 Magazine also quotes Mr. Zohar saying that he will “deny funding to those who promote our enemy’s narrative and harm Israel’s good name”.
According to several Israeli media outlets (including Times of Israel), the Culture Minister plans to start demanding filmmakers sign a document stating that they will not produce “anti-Israeli” content if they hope to receive state funding. This will be a criteria for supporting any state funding.
Mr. Zohar has asked the Minister of Finance to research how the government may demand the repayment of the funds, which have long since been spent on the production of the film. Meanwhile, other groups in the country have started campaigns to stop screenings of the film, such as at the Cinematheque in the city of Herzliya.
Two Kids A Day will be screened in Oslo, Norway at HUMAN International Documentary Film Festival in March. Their international competition programme has a long-standing commitment to highlighting and debating human rights issues around the world. The festival management see the film as being important because it deals with the rights of children, and further that the conflict surrounding the film in Israel is a threat against freedom of speech.
The festival is especially glad to be able to host the international premiere of a thorough, critical, and well-made documentary about the consequences of the occupation for some of the weakest in society. The film has previously only been screened at home in Israel, where it won the Best Documentary Research Award at Jesrusalem Film Festival in 2022.
Click here to read more about the film.
HUMAN International Documentary Film Festival (previously known as Human Rights Human Wrongs) will take place for the 15th time in March this year.
