Iran cancels screening of Israeli film

Organizers of Tehran International Film Festival announce that award-winning film 'More than 1,000 words' will not be included in festival's program
Eldad Beck

BERLIN – The organizers of the Tehran International Film Festival announced on Thursday that the award-winning Israeli film 'More than 1,000 words' would not be included in the festival's program.

 

The movie follows Israeli photographer Ziv Koren over a two-year period, as he documents different aspects of the Middle East conflict.

 

The film's director, Solo Avital, was officially invited to take part in the festival and the movie was to be screened as part of an event dedicated to the second Lebanon war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 

The invitation made waves across the world, which possibly led to heavy political pressures on the festival organizers to cancel the movie's participation.

 

An official letter sent to the film's German distribution company said that it was decided to cancel because the organizers did not get enough movies dealing with Lebanon to take part in the festival.

 

The Iranian news agency, however, reported that the screening of "the Zionist film" was canceled after the festival managers watched it and decided to prevent an attempt by Israeli filmmakers to include in the festival "a film dealing with the conflict between the Zionist regime and the Palestinians."