(Guardian) Pedro Almodóvar, the leading Spanish film director, has accused the government in Madrid of carrying out a rigorous plan to exterminate Spanish cinema, joining an increasingly angry battle between film-makers and the rightwing governing People's party (PP).
In an article published on the website infoLibre, Almodóvar criticised the finance minister, Cristobal Montoro, for a hike in VAT on tickets which has been widely blamed for causing many cinemas to shut, with the loss of hundreds of jobs. Last week, Montoro said the problems faced by the industry, which include cuts to government funding for domestic films, were nothing to do with taxes or funding, but instead to do with the poor quality of the films.
"Someone should tell this minister … that in France the VAT rate [on cinema tickets] is 7%, and next year it will go down to 5%, in Italy it's 10%, in Germany 11%, compared to 21% in Spain," Almodóvar wrote.
Almodóvar argued that the conflict between traditionally leftwing film-makers and the government dated back to the war in Iraq. "In 2003, Spanish cinema protested … against the war in Iraq … which earned it the hostility of successive governments of the PP. Never mind that 90% of Spanish people were against the war, as demonstrated in the streets across the country," he said.
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