Lars von Trier has expanded his apology for the statements he made in the Cannes press conference for Melancholia.
The director was banned from the festival after joking that he was a Nazi and claiming to have sympathy for Hitler. By that point, von Trier had already apologised for the remarks.
Von Trier seemingly made his new apology in a response to a letter of support from Iranian culture minister Javad Shamaqdari to festival president Gilles Jacob. Shamaqdari accused the Cannes directors of "fascist behaviour" and limiting freedom of speech, The Guardian reports.
"In my opinion, freedom of speech, in all its shapes, is part of basic human rights," von Trier said. "However, my comments during the festival's press conference were unintelligent, ambiguous and needlessly hurtful.
"My intended point was that the potential for extreme cruelty, or the opposite, lies within every human being, whatever nationality, ethnicity, rank or religion.
"If we only explain historical disasters with the cruelty of individuals we destroy the possibility of understanding the human mechanisms, which in turn are necessary in order to avoid any future crimes against humanity."
In an interview with Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz last week, von Trier revealed that he "lived most of [his] life as a Jew" and "wore a skullcap" before he discovered that his biological father - who he "couldn't stand" - was German.
"I said with a kind of typical Danish humour that most people don't understand that I was a Nazi. But I'm not," he explained. "It was a stupid joke. But that's the kind of humour I use when I talk to my friends, who know me and know I'm not a Nazi.
"I apologise profoundly for offending people. It was not my intention. I've also offended Germans, when instead of saying 'German' I used the word 'Nazi,' as though every German is a Nazi."
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