Jerusalem Film Festival opens with screening of Almodovar’s latest film

The 33rd Jerusalem Film Festival kicked off on Thursday with Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar’s latest work ‘Julieta’.

The 10day festival, which will screen more than 200 movies, chose to inaugurate the event with ‘Julieta’ “because it is a very good movie, and one of the best movies this year, and directed by a very capable filmmaker,” a festival spokesperson told Efe.

After the decision to show Julieta first, the global campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel called on Almodovar to refuse to allow his movie to be screened by a regime practicing “apartheid through occupation”.

The Oscarwinning director has publicly denounced Israel’s incursion into Gaza, signing his name on an open letter drafted with other celebrities including actress Penelope Cruz and actor Javier Bardem, that called on the Israeli government to “stop the daily humiliations and trampling on the rights of the Palestinian population in the West Bank,” as cited by Spanish media.

Motion pictures participating in the Jerusalem Film Festival will be screened in several places in Jerusalem, including the Old City, as well as in theaters and a complex installed for the occasion in Independence Park.