Debra Winger Calls for Polanski’s Release, Variety Reports

Debra Winger, Jury member for the Zurich Film Fest had this to say:

The American thesp criticized Swiss authorities for their “philistine collusion” in arresting the helmer at Zurich Airport on Saturday on behalf of U.S. justice authorities, just before the festival was to honor him for lifetime achievement.

“This fledgling festival has been unfairly exploited and whenever this happens the whole art world suffers,” Winger said in a statement to journalists on Monday, standing together with the other four international jury members in announcing they had decided to continue at the festival that is honoring Polanski.

“We hope today this latest (arrest) order will be dropped. It is based on a three-decades-old case that is dead but for minor technicalities. We stand by him and await his release and his next masterpiece.”

Winger added: “We came to Zurich to honor Roman Polanski as a great artist but under these sad and arcane circumstances we can only think of him today as a human being uncertain of the year ahead. His life has always informed his art and it always will.”

Protesters outside the festival’s main theater on Sunday, where he was honored despite being in jail, held up banners demanding his release and criticizing Swiss authorities for arresting him.

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