Being shut out of UK cinemas has not stopped Seret

Choosing films for Seret, the Israeli film festival she founded with Patty Hochmann, is the part of the job Odelia Haroush relishes most.

This year, her picks speak volumes. There’s Reading Lolita in Tehran from esteemed Israeli director Eran Riklis, which is a true story about the women in post-revolution Iran who secretly read banned books to carve out spaces of resistance and hope. There’s Esty Bitton Shushan’s The Book of Ruth, which charts an ultra-Orthodox couple whose dream life fractures under tragedy. And then there’s the coming-of-age comedy-drama Cuz You’re Ugly and the raw, searching Burning Man.

For Haroush, programming for the festival is about more than taste. “The main issue is that we like to show the wonderful culture that we have in Israel,” she says. “That people see all the social and cultural diversity within Israeli society. And I think it’s very important to show it in as many venues as possible.”

This year, that last ambition has proved the hardest. Which is why the 15th festival wasn’t launched in a cinema, but inside the House of Commons. Nice as this was, the choice was not symbolic but necessary: no commercial cinema would host it.

Instead, guests were shown Image of Victory, Avi Nesher’s powerful account of the 1948 War of Independence as a reminder of the cost of creating the Jewish state, preceded by a panel discussion that showed the price is still being paid today. All screenings across the festival will take place in privately hired venues or at JW3. The official reasoning from cinemas has centred on “the situation in the Middle East”. But, as Lord Ian Austin, who hosted the launch alongside MP Luke Akehurst, put it bluntly: “This is obviously nuts because America is in that war too and no one is banning films from Hollywood.”

Haroush, who has run Seret for 15 years and has launched it in Germany, the Netherlands, Chile, Argentina and, most recently, Spain, says she has never encountered anything like it. Since October 7, she explains, UK cinemas have refused to engage. “This is very sad,” she adds. “I feel they want to ban Israeli films not because of their content but because of their origin.”

According to Daniela Grudsky, Israel’s Acting Ambassador, who was also at the Commons, what is happening to Seret reflects a broader pattern. “There is no logic to it. Pressure campaigns, financial fears and threats of audience boycotts are shaping decisions. You have to ask, where is the freedom of speech that we cherish so much?”

For Danny Cohen, also attending, the issue cuts deeper still. The reluctance to host Israeli films, he argues, is not just caution – it is complicity. A failure of leadership that risks normalising exclusion.

And yet Seret goes on, driven by the persistence of Odelia Haroush, who believes the House of Commons launch helped widen the audience and spark meaningful conversation. “Every little helps,” she says — and this year’s programme has a distinctly universal pull.

There is also the added draw of hearing directly from the filmmakers and performers themselves. Among the visiting talent is director Eran Riklis and executive producer Jonny Persey, who on 8 May will take part in Crossing Borders, a discussion exploring global partnerships, creative collaboration and what it takes to bring films to life across countries and cultures.

Actors Yossi Marshak and Shai Avivi will appear alongside their respective films Cuz You’re Ugly and Burning Man, while Neta Riskin — best known for Shtisel — will attend the screening on 10 May of Nandauri, Eti Tsicko’s award-winning road movie about identity, heritage and return. Riskin has already been recognised for her role as a lawyer retracing her Georgian roots in a bid to rescue a young boy. It is one of Haroush’s personal favourites — though, as she readily admits, she could say that about many of them. That, after all, is precisely why they made the cut. Now they just need to be seen.

Visit seretfilmfestival.org for screenings