Israeli director Amos Gitai has resisted attempts to boycott his film “Why War,” which is being shown at the Venice festival.

The film, which premieres this weekend, is based on the correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud in the early 1930s, in which they attempted to find answers to questions about the warlike nature of man and how war could be prevented.

On the eve of the festival, “Why War” — alongside Dani Rosenberg’s “Of Dogs and Men” — was the subject of a letter signed by more than 300 artists, including filmmakers Hany Abu Assad, Enrico Parenti and Alessandra Ferrini, arguing that the film was “made by complicit Israeli production companies that contribute to apartheid, occupation and now genocide through their silence or active participation in artwashing.”

But Gitai, speaking at a news conference on Saturday, argued that those calling for the boycott had not seen “Why War” and that the film had not received Israeli state support.