Following ten days during which the 22 competing films were sometimes overshadowed by a dispute about the proper role of politics in filmmaking, the 76th Berlin Film Festival comes to an end on Saturday.
When jury president Wim Wenders responded to a question regarding the German government’s support for Israel at the start of the festival, he said, “We cannot really enter the field of politics.” This statement sparked controversy.
He had previously stated at the same press conference that movies have the ability to “change the world,” but not in the same manner as party politics.
“No movie has ever changed the ideas of a politician, but we can change the idea that people have of how they should live,” Wenders, 80, said.
But his comments in response to the question on Israel prompted a storm of outrage.
Award-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, who had been due to present a restored version of a 1989 film she wrote, pulled out of the event, branding Wender’s words “unconscionable” and “jaw-dropping”.
On Tuesday, a letter signed by dozens of film industry figures, including Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton and Adam McKay, condemned the Berlin festival’s “silence on the genocide of Palestinians”.
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