Israeli Movie ‘Foxtrot’ Wins Second Place Prize at Venice Film Festival
by JNS.org
JNS.org – The Israeli film “Foxtrot” won the second-place Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday and drew strong criticism from Israel’s Minister of Culture Miri Regev for its purported negative portrayal of the IDF.
“It’s outrageous that Israeli artists contribute to the incitement of the young generation against the most moral army in the world by spreading lies in the guise of art,” Regev said in a statement on Saturday night.
The minister also accused the film of giving the anti-Israel BDS movement and “haters of a Israel around the world” a “tailwind.”
The film is partially influenced by director Samuel Maoz’s own military experience in the IDF. It details the story of an affluent Tel Aviv couple informed that their young son, a soldier, has been killed in the line of duty at an isolated roadblock in Israel’s Negev desert.
“If I criticize the place I live, I do it because I worry,” Moaz told reporters. “I do it because I want to protect it. I do it from love.”
The film’s second-place prize comes eight years after Maoz’s debut feature film, the critically-acclaimed “Lebanon,” won the festival’s Golden Lion prize, the highest award at the event.