It was a tumultuous week for the Israeli film industry. The equivalent of the country with Oscars, the Ophir Awards, was condemned by the Minister of Culture Miki Zohar after “the sea” – a Palestinian boy from the West Bank – won the best film on Tuesday evening. A few hours later, Ariel Bronz, the star of “Yes” of Nadav Lapid, was detained the same night by the police for interrogation on suspicion of incentive to commit an act of terrorism for a poem which he published on Facebook two months ago.
Talk to Variety Friday, Bronz said that the police broke into his apartment in Tel Aviv at 4 am and placed him in police custody in what he described as “cyberbullying”. His provocative poem revolved around a blood effusion cycle and called the Israeli Prime Minister.
“Part of the agreement that allowed me to get out of the guard was that I have to erase this poem on the web, and my personal computer and my book,” he said. “They told me that if I would send the poem to someone, I will have to pay 10,000 shekels.”
It was not his first time in detention, because he says that he is known as a subversive artist who has notoriously disagreed with the Israeli government for 14 years. But the moment of this arrest surprised him.
“It was a very strange timing because we had this ceremony and a few hours later, I was taken by the police,” he said. Bronz suspects that the “right -wing government of the country was embarrassed by the ceremony and the fact that a film on a Palestinian child won the prices, so they wanted to embarrass the left and I was an easy target.” “Yes” has also won several technical prizes to Ophirs.
Bronz was released by the police after having deposited a deposit, but he will have to stand before a judge suspected of incentive to commit an act of terrorism linked to his poem.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Culture Zohar announced the launch of the “Israeli Oscar ceremony” which will represent the official alternative supported by the government at Ophir Awards. He said that “the Israeli film and Television Academy did not represented the Israeli public and the majority of Israeli citizens, but rather served as a platform for extremist and delusional voices on the fringes of Israeli society which harms the fabric of Israeli society.”
The Ophir ceremony was highly charged politically, because several winners on stage urged the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza. Almost all sported a black t-shirt with an anti-war message like “a child is a child is a child”, while others had photos of the hostages.
Although it has difficulty maintaining independence and freedom of expression at home, the Israeli film industry is also faced with boycott threats from the international community. Last week, nearly 4,000 names in the entertainment industry, including Hollywood stars like Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix, signed a petition calling for a boycott of Israeli cinematographic institutions “accomplices of war crimes” in Gaza.
However, Bronz, who was also nominated for his role in “Yes” at Ophir Awards, thinks that the world of cinema is one of the only places where Israelis and Palestinians worked peacefully in hand.
“It’s quite incredible. It’s like an utopia or an imaginary world where peace can occur,” he said.
“Yes”, which was presented as a world premiere with the directors of Cannes a fortnight, opened on Wednesday in France.
