JERUSALEM: Israel’s contender for this year’s foreign-language Oscar has swept local film awards and scored high honors at the Venice Film Festival.
But before it even hit the silver screen at home, Samuel Maoz’s “Foxtrot,” a drama exploring Israel’s West Bank occupation and the modern Israeli psyche, has found itself caught in the crossfire of a raging culture war.
Culture Minister Miri Regev’s beef with Foxtrot is part of her ongoing battle with artists perceived as being critical of the Israeli government. Since taking office in 2015, Regev has moved to cut government funding to theaters and artists deemed disloyal to the state and troupes that refuse to perform in West Bank settlements.
Though Foxtrot never mentions Palestinians by name, and the people stopped by the soldiers at a remote checkpoint never utter a word, the film obliquely criticizes Israel’s occupation of the West Bank as unjust, futile and morally corrupting.
The soldiers’ shipping container barracks is gradually sinking in the mud, a metaphor for the country as a whole.
“We’re tilting,” one soldier says after rolling a can of processed meat to gauge the barracks’ angle. “If we’re tilting then eventually we’ll turn over and sink. When it happens it’ll happen suddenly. I don’t know if I’ll have enough time to say ‘I told you so,’ so I’m telling you now.”
Shortly after its Venice award, Regev — a former army spokeswoman and military censor — appeared in television interviews railing against Foxtrot, while admitting she had not actually seen it.
She wrote on Facebook that she was “ashamed” that the Israeli film academy celebrated Foxtrot, “a film that chose to slander the Israel Defense Forces.”
The scene that apparently raised Regev’s hackles shows Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint accidentally killing a carful of innocent civilians, and the army’s subsequent cover-up of the incident in the most literal fashion — with a bulldozer.
Maoz dismissed Regev’s criticism in an interview with the Hebrew daily Haaretz, saying the scene was allegorical and meant to show how Israeli society “prefers to bury the truth in the mud we created, instead of dealing with it and asking ourselves piercing questions.”
Foxtrot is slated for a limited release in the United States on March 2, two days before the Academy Awards ceremony.
Israel’s Oscar hopeful ‘Foxtrot’ slams West Bank occupation
Israel’s Oscar hopeful ‘Foxtrot’ slams West Bank occupation
Dutch couple’s marriage annulled due to ChatGPT speech
- The pair said “I do” and the officiant declared them “not only husband and wife, but above all a team”
- The judge found that they had not actually sworn to fulfil their marriage duties
AMSTERDAM: A Dutch couple had their marriage annulled after the person officiating used a ChatGPT-generated speech that was intended to be playful but failed to meet legal requirements, according to a court ruling published this week.
The pair from the city of Zwolle, whose names were redacted from the January 5 decision under Dutch privacy rules, argued that they had intended to marry regardless of whether the right wording was used when they took their vows.
According to the decision, the person officiating their ceremony last April 19 asked whether they would “continue supporting each other, teasing each other and embracing each other, even when life gets difficult.”
The pair said “I do” and the officiant declared them “not only husband and wife, but above all a team, a crazy couple, each other’s love and home base.”
But the judge found that they had not actually sworn to fulfil their marriage duties — something that is required under Dutch law.
“The court understands that the date in the marriage deed is important to the man and woman, but cannot ignore what the law says.” It ordered the marriage removed from the Zwolle city registry.
