Czech Jews Slam Honor for Mel Gibson
Image by getty images
Leaders of the Czech Jewish community criticized a local film festival’s decision to honor actor and director Mel Gibson.
Image by getty images
Gibson is due to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Karlovy Vary film festival.
The Czech Federation of Jewish Communities said in a statement that Gibson was unworthy of the honor both because of a 2006 drunken anti-Semitic rant and because of his controversial 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ,” which some critics had called anti-Semitic.
The federation called the film “one of the most offensive movies ever shot” because of “classic stereotypes” about Jews, which may serve to “justify anti-Jewish hatred.”
Uljana Donatova, spokeswoman for the festival, held in the western spa city, said organizers respect the federation’s opinion, “but we are only assessing Mel Gibson’s career as a filmmaker,” she told AFP.
The organizers of the 49th edition of the festival, which runs from Friday to July 12, will also award a lifetime achievement award to U.S. filmmaker William Friedkin, known for his thriller “The Exorcist.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
