The film "Rock the Casbah," depicts war-time dilemmas of Israeli soldiers trying to root out terrorists hiding among Gazan civilians. Two of its Jewish Israeli filmmakers, Yariv Horowitz and Assaf Amdursky, after premiering the movie at a film festival in France, were attacked by a group of Arab youths in the street, knocking Horowitz' head unconscious against the pavement.
After the violent incident, which apparently was racially motivated, Horowitz's film won the
Special Prize of the Jury for Best Picture.
The film "Rock the Casbah", starring Yon Tumarkin, follows the story of young soldiers in the first intifada in Gaza. The soliders are located on the roof of a Palestinian family whose son is involved in the murder of one of their battalion.
The film which nabbed the Art Cinema Award at the Berlin Intl. Film Festival, paints a harsh portrait of Israel, follows a group of hapless young Israeli soldiers stationed in Gaza in 1989 as they struggle to keep a lid on the chaos around them.
From
Walla News site, (machine translated from Hebrew:)
The first intifada, continues to make waves in the world, but this time the reaction hugging accompanied by the incident frightening: During the festival Ovin (Aubagne) French music and film, attended Horowitz and collected. Asaf Amdursky composed the soundtrack for the film, was attacked Horowitz by a gang of youths of Arab descent. He lost consciousness, but fortunately was treated there and finally returned to the festival, where he picked the special prize of the jury for best picture and best music with Amdursky.
"The night after the premiere of the film back, I gathered, to the hotel," says Horowitz Walla! Culture. "And suddenly a bunch of Arabs attacked me. They told me, 'Fuck you' and I said to them, 'Fuck you', and Assaf tried to defend me, but they threw me and my head hit the pavement, and then lost consciousness. Luckily I was treated and recovered, it could have ended much worse."
According to Horowitz, although clearly not possible to know whether the attack is related to a movie, locals claimed that at least one of the young people were watching it. "After they dealt with me asked if I wanted to file a complaint and did not want, I flew away. But the next day I realized through the local and the festival at least one of the young people who attacked me see the movie. They did not say anything when they attacked me."
You can understand why you were attacked following the film?
"Listen, it's strange that here right activists wrote talkbacks should hang me. Has many Arabs who loved him. Perhaps extreme enlightened men think showing it worth beating."
Horowitz and winning the prize Amdursky joins the International Confederation for quality cinema Berlin Film Festival and the Audience Award at the festival Bergamo in Italy which won the "Rock the Casbah" earlier this year.
After the violent incident, Horowitz's film won the Special Prize of the Jury for Best Picture. Israeli singer and musician Assaf Amdursky also received an award for a movie he wrote music.
