WASHINGTON (JTA) — An Israeli filmmaker said she would attend a Scottish film festival despite threats of a boycott.
Ken Loach, a prominent British film director, had called for a boycott of the Edinburgh International Film Festival after it accepted an Israeli government grant to fly Tali Shalom-Ezer to the festival to screen her film, “Surrogate.”
The festival returned the money to Israel, but offered to fund Shalom-Ezer’s flight at its own expense. Loach said he had no problem with individual Israeli filmmakers attending.
On Thursday, Shalom-Ezer told media she would attend the festival, but reproached Loach as a “racist” and expressed concern that the controversy would keep festival-goers from attending the screening of her film.
“Surrogate” deals with the relationship between a patient and a woman who is treating him with sexual therapy.
