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MELBOURNE : British filmmaker and activist Ken Loach has moved to withdraw his work from Melbourne's International Film Festival in protest against partial sponsorship from Israel, a report said Saturday.
Loach, whose work The Wind that Shakes the Barley won the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 2006, wrote to the festival's director Richard Moore threatening to pull his film Looking for Eric because the event had received Israeli funds.
"Palestinians, including artists and academics, have called for a boycott of events supported by Israel," wrote Loach, according to The Age newspaper.
The boycott, aimed not at independent Israeli film-makers or films but "the Israeli state", was in protest at what Loach described as "illegal occupation of Palestinian land, destruction of homes and livelihoods" and "the massacres in Gaza".
Controversy hit the festival earlier this week when Chinese officials attempted to ban the screening of a documentary about a Uighur activist, in the wake of recent violence in Xinjiang involving the Muslim minority.
Moore refused to exclude the Uighur film, Ten Conditions of Love, and said he would not meet Loach's request to reconsider sponsorship from the Jewish state.
"I wouldn't do it. The festival wouldn't. It's like submitting to blackmail," he said.
Israel's government had supported the festival in previous years, and their 2009 sponsorship involved paying the airfare for festival guest Tatia Rosenthal, Moore said.
Loach, 73, succeeded in a similar bid to have sponsorship withdrawn from the Edinburgh International Film Festival in May by threatening to boycott the programme if they did not return funds from Israel.
- AFP/ir
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