Creator of futuristic fantasy screening at arts centre says her film is a work of art and not propaganda about Palestine/Israel conflict

The head of the UK’s main Jewish organisation has accused London’s Barbican arts centre of showing an antisemitic film, which she claims is “blatant propaganda about the Israel-Palestine conflict” masquerading as science fiction.

Gillian Merron, the chief executive of the Board of Deputies, an umbrella organisation representing British Jews, called on the London arts centre to remove the film In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain from the exhibition Into the Unknown: A Journey Through Science Fiction.

The film by a Palestinian artist, Larissa Sansour, and a Danish author, Søren Lind, which combines live action, computer-generated imagery and historical photographs, is described in the exhibition as telling “the story of a fictional ‘narrative resistance’ group which attempts to implant the existence of a fictional civilisation in history by burying fragments of pottery in the ground”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Excerpt from In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain.

In a letter to Sandeep Dwesar, the chief operating and financial officer of the Barbican, Merron wrote: “While the Barbican synopsis casts the film as a sci-fi feature about fictitious technologically advanced aliens who land in an area to implant a ‘false history’, I understand that the film is clearly filmed in Israel and that the dialogue is in Arabic and purports to show the ‘aliens’ seeding the land with porcelain in an effort to create the ‘false’ impression that they have a historical connection to it.

Requesting its removal from the exhibition, Merron said: “It is therefore not much of a stretch to suggest that the film is a means by which to deny the historical Jewish connection to Israel and an exercise in delegitimisation. Accusing Jews of falsifying our connection to Israel smacks of antisemitism and is of grave concern.”

In reply, Dwesar said: “The short film has been programmed for its poetical vision before anything else. ... Having spoken to the curator and the artists, the intention is that the symbolic visual language in the film speaks of history and tradition, yet it cannot necessarily be placed in any distinct or quantifiable time period.”

But Merron said: “This is blatant propaganda, hiding behind the facade of a science fiction exhibition. It is deeply disappointing that an institution like the Barbican refuses to respond to the very real concerns of members of the community.”

The film, whose production was supported by Arts Council England and the Danish Arts Council, has previously been shown in galleries and art centres in Nottingham, Bristol, Liverpool and the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

The board’s complaint came after they were alerted to the film by a member of the Jewish community who saw it at the Barbican.

In a statement on her Facebook account, Sansour said she and Lind were “deeply troubled to see the Barbican accused ... of antisemitism for showing our film”.

She wrote: “Although our film makes an effort to avoid direct references to Israel – in a deliberate attempt not to limit its implications to a singular context – the film’s symbolism, its dialogue spoken in Palestinian Arabic and its topic matter certainly do situate it firmly within an Israeli/Palestinian framework. And yes, both Soren and I strongly oppose the Israeli occupation, but we thought and hoped that we had moved beyond the days when criticism of the policies of the state of Israel gave rise to automated accusations of antisemitism. I know that these are sensitive times, but this should give us all the more reason to refrain from simplistic and distorting political rhetoric.”

The artists told the Guardian they were disturbed that the Board of Deputies had approached the film as if it was a piece of propaganda rather than art.

Lind said the film did not in any way suggest that Israelis had falsified their historical connection to Israel. The background for making the film was an interest in the relationship between myth, fiction, fact and history, and the narrative components at play in the formation of national identity in a region marred by political turmoil.

He said: “Nobody is falsifying anything. We’re tapping into a scenario in which Palestinians are politically unfavoured despite international recognition. Our film is an academic endeavour based on years of research that draws on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but is not exclusively about that situation. It is a sci-fi film exploring the power of narrative, of defining history and influencing political realities.”