US bars Syrian Oscar contender from entering country

US immigration authorities are barring entry to a 21-year-old Syrian cinematographer who worked on a harrowing film about his nation’s civil war, “The White Helmets,” that has been nominated for an Academy Award.
According to internal Trump administration correspondence seen by The Associated Press, the Department of Homeland Security has decided at the last minute to block Khaled Khateeb from traveling to Los Angeles for the Oscars.
Khateeb was scheduled to arrive Saturday in Los Angeles on a Turkish Airlines flight departing from Istanbul. But his plans have been upended after US officials reported finding “derogatory information” regarding Khateeb.
Derogatory information is a broad category that can include anything from terror connections to passport irregularities. Asked for comment, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Gillian Christensen, said, “A valid travel document is required for travel to the United States.”
“The White Helmets,” a 40-minute Netflix documentary, has been nominated for Best Documentary Short. If the film wins the Oscar, the award would go to director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara. The film focuses on the rescue workers who risk their lives to save Syrians affected by civil war. Many of the group’s members have been killed by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s air forces.
The group also was nominated for last year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Meanwhile, an Oscar-nominated Iranian film director has sent a video message to a rally attended by celebrities and top talent agents. It is intended to thank the Hollywood community for its support during his boycott of the awards ceremony.
In it, Asghar Farhadi condemns the new US president’s policies and says they are “trying to promote hate.”
The director chose an Iranian-American female engineer and a former NASA scientist to represent his film “The Salesman” at Sunday’s Oscar ceremony.
In a statement to Hollywood trade publication Variety on Friday, Farhadi’s publicist said that engineer Anousheh Ansari, who was the first female space tourist, and Firouz Naderi, a former director of NASA’s Solar System Exploration program, would take Farhadi’s place at the Oscars and represent him on stage should the film win.

Source: Arab News