The Indian writer Arundhati Roy has canceled her trip to the Berlinale in response to comments at the press conference presenting the jury, chaired by Wim Wenders, who assured that cinema has to “stay out of politics.”
The author of The god of small things o My refuge and my storm, and winner of various awards such as the Booker Prize, was going to present the comedy about university life at the German film festival In Which Annie Give It Those Ones (1989), by Pradip Krishen, whose script Roy wrote. At the Berlinale, the restored film is screened in the Berlinale Classics section.
In a statement, Roy says: “Hearing them say that art should not be political is astonishing (…). It is a way of silencing a conversation about a crime against humanity as it unfolds before us in real time, when artists, writers and filmmakers should be doing everything possible to stop it.” For the author, the situation in Gaza is “a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. It has the support and financing of the governments of the United States and Germany, as well as several other European countries, which makes them complicit in the crime.”
In the long text, he explains that he hesitated to travel to Berlin when he received the invitation: “Although I have been deeply disturbed by the positions of the German government and various German cultural institutions on Palestine, I have always received political solidarity when speaking to the German public about my opinion on the genocide in Gaza. This is what led me to think about attending the screening at the Berlinale.”
And she concludes: “If the greatest filmmakers and artists of our time cannot speak out and say so, they should know that history will judge them. I am shocked and disgusted.”
At Thursday’s press conference, the jury was asked about Gaza. Because the Berlinale has supported the Ukrainian people, including with an appearance at President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 2023 inauguration gala via video; has taken the side of the Iranian people all these years, and in this edition a public conversation was scheduled between two winners of the Golden Bear, the Persians Jafar Panahi (who in the midst of the Oscar campaign has been condemned in his country) and Mohammad Rasoulof (exiled since May 2024 in Hamburg), a talk postponed in solidarity with the Iranians. What’s more, on Friday’s red carpets photos of retaliated Persian filmmakers and messages calling for their freedom were shown.
And then, where is the support for the Gazans? Polish producer Ewa Puszczyńska, a member of the jury, immediately argued that the question was not fair. “Films are not political in your sense of the word. Asking this question is a bit unfair. We use the phrase ‘change the world’, but of course we try to talk to each viewer, make them believe that we cannot be responsible for the decision they make: the decision to support Israel or the decision to support Palestine.” And he defended himself: “There are many wars with genocides, and we don’t talk about that. It is a very complex question, and it is a bit unfair to ask us how we support our governments or not, because that is for politicians to decide.”
And Wenders supported her: “We have to stay out of politics. We are the counterweight of politics, the opposite of politicians; we have to do the work of the people, not the work of politicians.” Those are the words that shocked Roy.