‘Orgy of antisemitism’: László Nemes on Hollywood hypocrisy and his new film

During an interview at a London hotel, a decorative wall-hanging featuring an ancient Hindu swastika hung above the head of director László Nemes as he discussed his new film “Orphan.”

Nemes laughed upon noticing the symbol. “I wanted to point that out to you,” he said. “It is so funny. Before leaving this room, I will take pictures.” He noted he once stayed in the “Mel Gibson room” at the San Sebastián film festival.

“Son of Saul,” Nemes’ debut feature released in 2015, was an unflinching study of a Sonderkommando at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The film won the Oscar for best foreign language film and was acclaimed as one of the greatest Holocaust films ever made.

“Orphan” is Nemes’ second feature in 11 years. He said he rejected offers to be a “gun for hire,” stating, “I wanted to keep control.”

The film follows a teenage Jewish boy in Hungary after World War II and the 1956 uprising, struggling with his mother’s past and his missing father.

A brutal butcher appears as a paternal figure, and the story reveals the compromises the boy’s mother made.

The story mirrors Nemes’ own family history. His father András dreamed of one man as his father but had to “cope with an abusive father who came back,” Nemes said.

András, now 81, still harbors doubt over his true father’s identity. Nemes said he grew up knowing the past was “full of shadows and traumas.” He called the film an attempt to “accept, almost the most hated part in my own self.”

Nemes said his candor about his family’s past is rare in the film industry. He is more interested in speaking the unhappy truth than currying favor.

When asked about his grandmother surviving the Holocaust as a sexual captive of his biological grandfather, Nemes did not demur. He was open about “all the psychopathologies” affecting his father.

He suggested his father “abandoned” him, repeating patterns of abandonment from his own childhood, partly out of hatred for his son’s luck.

Nemes said European Jews have been orphaned by assimilation and the Holocaust, where 1.5 million children were killed. He argued Europe failed to integrate the Holocaust’s experience. “There’s shame, but there’s no understanding,” he said.

He believes a film like “Son of Saul” would not make the Oscar shortlist today due to the politicization of cinema. “Anything that’s Jewish is now considered … Nobody would touch it with a 10ft pole,” he said.

Nemes said “Orphan” has not found a US distributor because of its Jewish subject. He has been “ignored in Venice” and sensed an “ideological standpoint” in media responses.

“There’s an orgy of antisemitism, an absolute, shameless orgy of antisemitism, overtaking the west,” he said. He described a clash between humanism and anti-humanism, with identity politics consumed by “race obsession” and “puritan moralising.”

He referred to artists and filmmakers calling for a boycott of Israel. “I think it’s all anti-humanist regression,” he said. “The Jew as the internal enemy of the west has reached the dimensions of European antisemitism before the Nazi takeover.”

He believes that mindset is getting there. He said totalitarian mindsets attach to a sense of being on the “righteous side.”

If celebrities protesting over Gaza were present, they would likely insist their motivation was anger at Israel’s conduct, including the killing of 70,000 Palestinians.

“Well, where were they when Bashar al-Assad killed at least 600,000 people in Syria? Where were these people with their beautiful ideas when children were in need of UN feeding in Yemen?” Nemes asked.

“They prefer to attach themselves to an ideology that pretends to be humanitarian but is not,” he said. “Had they really cared, they would have revolted against a totalitarian death cult killing its own population.”

When asked who that was, Nemes said, “Hamas.”

“That’s a globalist jihadist ideology, very much aimed at killing Jews,” he said. “There’s this obsession with Jews.”

He noted that people asked him about Gaza instead of his film, and whether he signed petitions.

“It’s tiring to hear the overclass of Hollywood lecture us morally from their pools and luxury homes,” Nemes said. “Do I really have to listen to millionaires lecture the world about morality?”

The journalist noted Nemes’ boldness in calling Hollywood’s big players an “overclass.”

“Not only in Hollywood, but in the world,” Nemes said. “There’s definitely an overclass of people cut from reality, eager to preach.”

Asked if he feels alone, Nemes said, “I don’t think I’m very alone. People are mostly cowardly to talk about it. They want to preserve their positions.”

In 2024, Nemes criticized Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar speech for “The Zone of Interest,” which denounced “Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation.” Nemes said Glazer was irresponsible and wanted to “please that overclass of Hollywood.”

“I don’t believe he understands anything about the reality of the region,” Nemes said. He urged filmmakers to focus on making good movies and resist “the treacherous, destructive power of the studio system.”

Nemes also criticized actors who become activists. “They should try to be actors, the best they can, and not become activists. It’s not really their role,” he said.

He condemned the binary nature of internet discourse, comparing it to the Victorian “noble savage” condescension. “We’re all good and bad at the same time,” he said. “Whoever thinks otherwise is an idiot.”

Since the interview, Nemes’ film “Moulin” was selected for Cannes. His country Hungary saw the defeat of Viktor Orbán, which Nemes called “a beautiful moment.”

He acknowledged global upheaval with dangers and “big possibilities,” but said the task is to accept and embrace both light and dark.

“Orphan” is out in UK cinemas. “Moulin” premieres at Cannes.