After mounting criticism after the initial response to the violent attack on the Oscar-win “there is no other land” associate Hamdan Ballal, the Academy of Film in Art and Sciences apologize for Friday, because on Friday.
In the letter to the members of the Academy, the CEO of the Academy Bill Kramer and its president Janet Yang, they said they were sorry not issued a direct statement about Balal. Director on Monday, witnesses said, they beat up Israel settlers in Western bank And then they were detained from the Israeli army.
Attack, only a few weeks after Balala and his colleagues, the director won the best documentary on academic awards, they were widely condemned by numerous film organizations. The Academy on Wednesday announced a statement to condemn “the damage or suppression of artists for their work or their views.”
Yuval Abraham, a journalist and co-director of “none other land”, was very critical of that response, comparing it with “silence in Hamdan’s attack.”
On Friday, more than 600 11,000 members of the Academy issued an open letter that says that the statement of the Academy “fell far short than the feeling of this moment.” Among the signatories were Joaquin Phoenix, Olivia Colman, Riz Ahmed, Emma Thompson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and “Interest zone” Jonathan Glazer.
After the meeting on Friday, the Board of the Academy, Kramer and Yang responded to the new statement.
“We sincerely apologize to Mr. Ballam and all artists who felt unsupported to our previous statement and wanting to clearly use that the academy condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world,” they wrote to members. “We welcome the control of free speech in any circumstances.”
After being detained for more than 20 hours, Balali published Israelian soldiers. Balal and two more Palestinians They are charged with throwing stones on settlements, allegations that deny. After release, Ballar told an associated press that the settler was throwing his head “like football” during the attack on his village.
“I realized that they were particularly attacking me,” Balar said in the hospital for West Bank after the release on Tuesday. “When they say” Oscar “, you understand. When they say their name, you understand.”
“No other country”, common Israeli-Palestinance production, Kronila is the situation in Masafer Yatta, which is the Israeli army as the Live Training Zone in 1980s and ordered the expansion of the inhabitants, mostly Arab Bedouin. About 1,000 inhabitants mostly remained in their place, but soldiers regularly come into demolishing houses, tents, water reservoirs and olive orchards.
After he did not find the American distributor despite wide recognition, “no other country” was independent in cinemas. She still managed to surpass two million dollars in northern American theaters.