Argentine director Lucrecia Martel , president of the jury of the official competition of the 76th Venice Film Festival, announced today that she will not attend the gala in which Roman Polanski's film will be screened next Friday, in solidarity with the victims of harassment

"I am not going to attend the Polanski gala because I represent many women who are fighting in Argentina for issues like this, I do not want to stand up and applaud ," Martel said at the inaugural press conference of the event.

At the same time, the director of Zama considered it "right" that Polanski's film is at the festival "because it is a dialogue that we owe ourselves and what better place than this to undertake that path".

Polanski, in search and capture of the USA for the violation of a minor in 1977, he will present the film J'accusse on Friday : The officer and the spy in which he will give his vision on the Dreyfus case .

Martel confessed that he has found it difficult to make a decision about his participation in this jury and that he has taken into account the position of his victim who today considers the case closed. "The presence of Polanski with news of the past was very uncomfortable for me , " he said, "but I have seen that the victim considers the case closed, not denying the facts but because he believes that Polanski has fulfilled what her family and she had requested."

"I do not separate the work from man, but I think his work deserves an opportunity because of the reflections it raises, " said the filmmaker. "If the victim is compensated, what are we going to do? Execute him, deny him being at the festival, put him out of competition to protect the festival? These are pending conversations of our time, taking out or putting Polanski forces us to talk , is not something simple to solve. "

Martel also expressed himself in favor of quotas when asked about the scarce female presence in the official section, which has only two women, the Saudi Haifaa Al Mansour and the Australian Shannon Murphy, in front of nineteen male filmmakers. "It doesn't give me happiness but I don't know how else we can start forcing this industry to think otherwise ; this does not mean that any film directed by a woman is making a great read about humanity, but it is clear that the cinema is not represented the complexity of society, "he added.

During the press conference, the differences in Martel's criteria with the director of the Mostra , Alberto Barbera, were clear in both matters. On the subject of Polanski, Barbera reiterated the need to distinguish between artist and man . "The history of art is full of people who have committed crimes but not for that reason we stopped considering their works," he said and insisted that after seeing his film he had no doubt.

As for the quotas in the selection of festivals it has been openly declared against. "It would be necessary to think about it in other situations, such as admissions in film schools, or access to financing, where there are still prejudices, but not in the selection of festivals, where there are no prejudices for women and introducing fees would mean not respecting the quality criterion ".

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • culture
  • movie theater

Cinema "John Mcenroe only played well if he felt that everyone was against him"

CineDavid Rubin, new president of the Hollywood Academy

Culture Scarlett Johansson, Iggy Azalea and Rihanna, latest victims of the paranoia of political correctness in the US