Films by the director, a vocal critic of artists who perform in Israel, have been widely shown in the country

Ken Loach has been accused of seeing himself as exempt from the cultural boycott of Israel that he promotes, after claims that he allowed his films to be distributed in the country without objection.

Loach has vocally condemned artists who perform in Israel as supporting an “apartheid regime” and his long-standing producer insisted it was down to a “mistake” that the Palme d’Or winning I, Daniel Blake is currently showing in Israeli cinemas.

The contentious issue of Loach’s films being screened in Israel emerged after the director’s searing condemnation of Radiohead’s decision to play a concert in Tel Aviv later this month. Loach accused the band of ignoring Palestinian communities and supporting a system of apartheid by refusing to commit to the cultural boycott of Israel.

Rebecca O’Brien, Loach’s producer, said the distribution company Wild Bunch, had done the deal “accidentally” and without the knowledge of Loach or his production company Sixteen Films.

“We have asked Wild Bunch before not to sell to Israel,” O’Brien said. “But what happened this time – and what has happened before – is that during Cannes, things happen very fast and a junior member of the company went and sold it to Israel in the heat of the moment, forgetting we had asked for it not to be sold there.”

Claims that the distribution rights for Israel were sold “accidentally” were however dismissed as “absurd” by Loach’s long-term Israeli distributor Guy Shani, the head of Shani Films and also the owner of Israel’s Lev cinema chain.

Shani told the Guardian he had known Loach and his producer for years, paying them money “every year”, and had never heard any objections.

“Since 1993, when we bought Raining Stones, we bought every film apart from two. We never faced any trouble buying and the audience at the Lev cinemas is very open-minded and believes in free speech. So he is he’s punishing the wrong people or trying to.

“I can’t tell you how absurd this is. We’ve been showing his movies for years. I have been paying him money every year. His latest film I, Daniel Blake has been really successful in Israel. So successful that we had some private events with Israeli government institutions where they booked the film to show to employees because of interest in the subject.”

He added: “It is a conundrum that has puzzled me too. It seems that Ken Loach feels himself exempt from the cultural boycott.”

Shani also dismissed the notion that he would distribute a film in Israel over the director and producer’s objections.

“You have to understand how this works in the film business. You don’t sell a film to someone a director doesn’t want a film sold to. It is a serious business. You have a list of regions and they approve country by country and then you need to get approval by producer and director.



“And if you have a relationship, a sales agent with a director who is really important to you, of course you don’t sell against their wishes.”

Loach has previously refused to have a film shown at the Edinburgh film festival because another film sponsored by the Israeli embassy was on the programme, and tried to withdraw from the Sydney film festival for similar reasons.

O’Brien conceded that this was not the first time that Loach’s films had been sold to Israeli film distributors by Wild Bunch, and that similar issues had arisen over Jimmy’s Hall and The Angels’ Share. She said Loach’s company had “no influence” over where the film went and while “mistakes had been made” the responsibility lay with Wild Bunch.

“It’s the second or third time it’s happened, which is most unfortunate,” she said. “But it’s because in the heat of the moment you’re not concentrating who you’re selling to: they just want to sell it to as many places as possible, as fast as possible and mistakes are made.

“We have no influence over it at the time – we just say: ‘Do your job, sell the film,’ and then in retrospect we realised: ‘Oh God, the film has been sold to Israel, that’s really bad.’ We’re pissed off with them but once you’ve sold it you can’t backtrack.”

Vincent Maraval, head of Wild Bunch, also jumped to Loach’s defence. “We are the international sales agent of Daniel Blake and Ken asked us not to sell the film to Israel. We did it against his will,” he tweeted on Friday.

O’Brien agreed that, after the incidents with previous films and Loach’s firm stance on the issue of the cultural boycott, it would have “absolutely” made sense to have a specific clause in their contract with Wild Bunch specifying that I, Daniel Blake would not end up in Israeli cinemas.

“The thing is that our relationship with Wild Bunch is very ad hoc. But absolutely that should be done. That’s my job, not Ken’s job, to see that it didn’t happen again.

“Ken is seen to be the sinner in all of this but it’s me that put Ken in this difficult position by being sloppy.”

Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement for Palestinian rights, said it did not expect artists who heed their cultural boycott to “do anything beyond their control to isolate Israel’s regime of occupation and apartheid”.

He added: “Inspired by the cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa, BDS expects and appeals to conscientious artists to refrain from performing in Israel or participating in events that are sponsored by Israel or by entities that are complicit in Israel’s egregious human rights violations until it meets its obligations under international law.”

