Screenings of Israeli film 'The City' cancelled by Beijing film festival

The City, an acclaimed feature film by Israeli director Amit Ulman, was set to take part in the main competition at the Beijing International Film Festival and compete for the Tiantan Award, but Ulman was notified a day ahead of time that the film’s participation in the festival had been canceled.

The team that had been preparing to attend the festival with The City, which included director/writer/performer Ulman, actress Moria Akons, and producers Elad Peleg and Aharon Peer, was supposed to fly to Beijing on April 21 but they were told that their tickets had been canceled and that they would be notified about their new flight details. Since then, the representatives of the festival simply stopped answering their calls. Not only were their plane tickets canceled, the screenings of the movie were canceled as well. The film was set to be screened in competition on April 23 and at several other times.

In a statement, representatives of The City said they regretted that, “despite the wonderful opportunity to present the film on a prestigious international stage, the festival not only canceled the film’s participation in the competition but also the additional festive screenings planned for The City, without an official explanation. The production understands that the reason for the sudden decision is not due to technical problems but to other motives... We hope that future opportunities will emerge to present this significant and important work to a wider audience around the world.”

The City, which dazzled audiences in Israel when it opened in 2023, is a unique feature-length rap, done noir-style, that mixes comedy and social criticism, in which Ulman plays a detective investigating a murder in a corrupt city. It has been screened at Jewish and Israeli film festivals around the world recently and received rave reviews. Israeli film critics voted Ulman the discovery of the year in a 2023 year-end poll. The movie is an adaptation of the stage show that Ulman created, which was a cult success for 10 years.

Festival fails to give an explanation 

Given the complete lack of explanation, it seems obvious that the cancellation is political, following China’s stand over Israel’s war against Hamas following the October 7 massacre. Among the ironies are that China has one of the worst human rights records in the world, particularly in its treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority, and that the movie is a biting critique of the current Israeli government.

The cancellation came shortly after Israeli choreographer, dancer and journalist Ori J. Lenkinski was disinvited from the Bergen Fringe Festival in Norway. According to a statement released by the B’tsalmo human rights organization, Lenkinski, who has contributed to The Jerusalem Post, was told that “she cannot perform because she is from Israel. She noted that although there is no boycott of Israel in Norway, [the festival organizers] decided that they must ‘take a step and cut ties with Israel,’ following what is happening in the country” and that they had canceled her participation.

B’tsalmo asked to have the funding for the Bergen Fringe Festival canceled due to its treatment of Lenkinski.

Israeli artists are concerned that these two events are just the beginning of a cultural boycott of Israel, which seems to have started in the fall when the Stockholm International Film Festival disinvited then re-invited Aleeza Chanowitz, whose television series Chanshi was screened there.

In November, at the opening ceremony of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the most prestigious one in the world, a sign reading, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – widely understood as a call for the genocide of Israeli Jews – was unfurled. The sign was greeted by applause from the audience, as well as from festival director Orwa Nyrabia, who later apologized.