'Boycott the boycotts' Jerusalem Post
'I'll boycott boycotts," said Wim Wenders at a press conference at the Sam Spiegel Film School in Jerusalem Monday. The iconoclastic master director, who is visiting Israel as part of the celebration of the school's 20th anniversary, had just been asked about his reaction to calls from fellow filmmakers for a boycott of Israeli movies. Wenders, who has made such modern classics as Wings of Desire (1988), Paris, Texas (1984) and The American Friend (1977), to name just a few, tends to go his own way.
"I've seen a lot of Israeli movies I've liked over the last few years," he said. "I can't think of a reason to boycott them." And that was that, as far as the director was concerned; but when reporters pressed him for his thoughts on cultural boycotts, he said, "Cultural boycotts - in general they don't work. Boycotts often achieve the opposite. Take Cuba - boycotting Cuba really secured Castro's rule for the next 20 years."
Cuba is a country Wenders knows
Meanwhile, two fine Israeli actors, Lior Ashkenazi and Sasson Gabay, are wilfully wasted in caricature parts. More Goodbye than Hello, I feel.
