Seven years after he was banned for controversial remarks in which he said he “sympathised” with Adolf Hitler, Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier is returning to the Cannes Film Festival.
The controversial filmmaker has been persona non grata at the world’s most important film festival for the past seven years following comments he made at a press conference at the festival in 2011 after he was asked about his background.
“I really wanted to be a Jew and then I found out I was really a Nazi, you know, because my family was German,” Von Trier said in 2011. “What can I say? I understand Hitler. I think he did some wrong things, yes absolutely, but I can see him sitting in his bunker in the end.
“I think I understand the man,” Von Trier continued. “He’s not what you would call a good guy, but I understand much about him and I sympathise with him a little bit. But come on, I’m not for the Second World War, and I’m not against Jews. I am of course very much for Jews.”
Von Trier then added: “No, not too much because Israel is a pain in the ass.”
Read the article by Michael Idato in The Sydney Morning Herald.