Egyptian film pulled from TIFF amid ongoing protest

The Toronto International Film Festival is winding down to its finale Saturday, but controversy over its spotlight on Tel Aviv continues.

Egyptian director Ahmad Abdalla's feature film debut Heliopolis was withdrawn from the festival Tuesday in protest of TIFF's City to City program, which for its inaugural year is showcasing a series of films from Tel Aviv.

The campaign began in August with Canadian filmmaker John Greyson withdrawing his film Covered from the festival. He accused TIFF organizers of being influenced by an Israeli government branding campaign and criticized "the smug business-as-usual aura [the spotlight] promotes."

Greyson was joined in his protest by activist Naomi Klein, filmmaker Ken Loach and a vast number of artists, intellectuals and other prominent figures who signed a letter protesting the City to City program. They did, however, draw the line at a boycott of TIFF itself.

Original protest draws critics

Another high-profile group including movie mogul Robert Lantos, writers Jacob and Noah Richler and actress Natalie Portman subsequently signed a letter in support of the TIFF program.

Jerusalem-born, New York-based actress Portman described the initial protest as "very poorly considered" during a roundtable interview in Toronto, where she is promoting her new film Love and Other Impossible Pursuits.

"I'm not saying Israel is beyond criticism, because there's plenty in Israel's politics that you can criticize. It's just, why boycott artists? It's ridiculous," she said, according to the Globe and Mail.

"There's so much dissent in Israeli and Palestinian art, and that's part of the spotlight. I wonder because [the original protesters], I respect their work I wonder if they hastily signed [the letter], because it seems not well thought through."

Organizers stand by program

TIFF director and CEO Piers Handling and co-director Cameron Bailey who have denied any outside involvement in the City to City program's conception or curation repeated their continued supportfor the showcase in a statement posted on the TIFF website.

"We welcome the discussion that is being prompted by our series. We programmed City to City to give our audience a window into Tel Aviv from the perspective of filmmakers who live and work there this includes filmmakers who cast a critical eye on the status quo," they said, adding that the withdrawal of Heliopolis was "unfortunate."

Another Egyptian film, Ahmed Maher's The Traveller, was also pulled from TIFF. However, according to TIFF organizers, the reason was a legal dispute between the film's Italian and Egyptian producers.