Natalie Portman and Justine Triet sign open letter supporting Israeli director Nadav Lapid amid Marseille Film Festival boycott
Natalie Portman and Justine Triet are among the names to have signed an open letter in support of Israeli director Nadav Lapid.
Lapid had been due to appear on the jury at the Marseille International Film Festival, but withdrew from the position following pressure from those who support the cultural boycott of Israel, according to Le Monde.
Lapid, who has lived in France since 2021, is notably a strong critic of Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime, and his latest film, Yes, is a satirical examination of Israel’s high society.
However, Yes was partially financially supported by Israeli public funds, which led to the calls for Lapid to be removed.
Judith Lou Lévy, producer of Yes at Les Films du Bal, told AFP (via EuroNews) that it accounted for around 12 per cent of the film’s budget and stated, “The Israeli subsidy the film received comes from a public fund and not a government one, and it is precisely the kind of independent body that is under attack from the Netanyahu government.”
Upon pulling out of the festival, Lapid said in a statement, “When I saw the pressure regarding my participation in the festival, I told myself that perhaps I had no place in France. If my presence is unacceptable and I can simply be erased or swept out of a film event, I really don’t know what the hell I’m doing here, to be honest.”
The festival itself has said it is “perfectly illegitimate to hold a filmmaker responsible or accountable for the racist, colonial and genocidal policy pursued by the government of his country“.
There has since been an outpouring of support for Lapid, with two open letters published in the French publication Le Monde, one of which is signed by Michel Hazanavicius, Justine Triet, Jacques Audiard and Natalie Portman.
The letter signed by the above names reads (via Screen Daily), “Those who call for artists to be completely erased from the public sphere must be opposed…no matter what crimes a state may commit, no one should be reduced to a passport.”
Meanwhile, the first letter, which was signed by over 350 figures in the French film industry, claims that the situation “is not a matter of critical disagreement or artistic debate, it is about a desire to exclude a filmmaker from a space for discussion and creation… that undermines a certain vision of cinema and culture”.
Marseille International Film Festival is set to take place between July 7th to July 12th, 2026.
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