An ultranationalist Turkish group has threatened famous director Fatih Akin for his upcoming movie “The Cut,” which premiered on Sunday in competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

The movie explores the controversial theme of the Armenian genocide, the Ottoman government’s systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects from their historic homeland within the territory constituting the present-day Republic of Turkey, which begun in 1915. The film is highly controversial in Turkey as the official government line is still that this genocide never occurred.

Speaking at a press conference in Venice before his film’s premiere, Akin told reporters that he received death threats from Turkish ultranationalists, after the Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos published an interview with him about his new film.

The famous German director of Turkish descent noted that the threats didn’t surprise him. “I spent the past seven or eight years preparing myself for all the controversy this film would stir and I’m now ready to face it. All I can say is that I did receive threats but I really don’t want to dwell on this matter,” the Doğan news agency reported.

More specifically, far-right nationalists in Turkey have threatened Akin that if The Cut is shown in Turkey, he could suffer the same fate as Hrant Dink, the Armenian-Turkish journalist that was shot down in 2007.

While the talented director said at the press conference that “art is worth dying for,” he also attempted to downplay the threats.

“You have one Tweet by some group and then it kicks off a media avalanche,” Akin said. “I’m not taking it too seriously.”