Danby on Loach
Michael Danby has responded to a decision by fabled film-maker Mike Loach, a strong critic of Israel’s Palestinian policies, to withdraw his film from the Melbourne Film Festival as the event is screening Israeli movies.
Michael Danby, the Federal Member for Melbourne Ports said it is a shame the British film maker Ken Loach has withdrawn from the Melbourne International Film Festival. Loach demanded the Melbourne film Festival withdraw Israeli films. Loach’s move follows an earlier move by the Chinese Consulate General demanding the festival not show a film about the Uighurs .
Danby said that Ken Loach’s behaviour towards Israeli films reminded him of the Stalinists that he portrayed in his film about George Orwell and the Spanish Civil War. Loach sympathetically portrayed, the anti-fascist Poum militia, in which George Orwell served and which was destroyed when they were over taken by the Stalinists.
‘ It’s about time that some of these British cultural figures kept their own provincial cultural prejudices at home and stopped acting like colonial, cultural commissars,’ Danby said
‘I, like thousands of film goers in Australia, will be very reticent to see Ken Loach films again, knowing that he is so prejudiced that he is opposed to Israel encouraging its own creative film industry. Israelis and Australians have always had a lot in common, including amused contempt for the irritating British penchant for claiming cultural superiority. Melbourne is a very different place to Londonistan,’ Danby said.
‘ The age when boring British cultural figures, whether they be Tory or Trotskyite, can give orders to the colonial’s are long gone,’ Danby argued.
Mr Danby said he was not surprised that the Melbourne International Film Festival had ignored Loach’s demand to stop showing Israeli films.
‘Mr Loach should stay home in his grim, cold London garret. He and his prejudices are irrelevant to this part of the world,’ Mr Danby said.
Michael Danby has also opposed the Chinese government’s attempt to impose their beliefs in Australia. He said that Loach’s behaviour was similar to the Chinese Consulate General demanding the Melbourne International Film Festival stop screening film’s critical of the Chinese Government.
Danby concluded, ‘ Like many Melbournians, I’ll be attending Israeli films like Waltzing with Bashir and the Uighur film, Ten Conditions of Love We won’t be giving Mr Loach’s film further thought.’
