Booker Prize–winning Indian author Arundhati Roy has withdrawn from the Berlin International Film Festival in protest at comments by the festival jury president suggesting that art should remain separate from politics. Roy said art cannot stay silent in the face of “genocide” in Gaza.
Protest Over “Art and Politics” Comments
Arundhati Roy announced she would not attend this year’s Berlin International Film Festival after remarks by jury president Wim Wenders about keeping art distanced from politics.
Roy described the comments as an attempt to shut down discussion about what is taking place in Gaza. She said she was “shocked and disgusted” by Wenders’ suggestion that filmmakers should remain non-political.
Wenders’ Remarks at Opening Press Conference
The Berlinale opened on Thursday amid controversy. When the competition jury, chaired by Wenders, was asked about the war in Gaza and whether films can bring about political change, he said: “Films can change the world, but not in a political way.”
He added: “Filmmakers should stay away from politics, because if we deliberately make political films, we enter the realm of politics. But we are the counterweight to politics, the opposite of politics. We must do the people’s work, not the politicians’ work.”
Roy’s Statement
In a statement announcing her withdrawal, Roy called the remarks unjustifiable and expressed concern that such views had reached millions of people worldwide.
She had been scheduled to attend a screening in the festival’s Classics section of a restored version of her 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones.
Roy said: “To hear it said that art should not be political is astonishing. It is a way of shutting down discussion about a crime against humanity — one that is unfolding before our eyes and live-streamed — at a time when artists, writers and filmmakers should use every means at their disposal to try to stop it.”
She added that although she has been deeply concerned and distressed by the positions of the German government and some cultural institutions in Germany regarding Palestine, she has consistently received political solidarity from German audiences when expressing her views about Gaza.
“History Will Judge”
Roy, who won the Booker Prize for her novel The God of Small Things, said: “What has happened and continues to happen in Gaza is the genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel.”
She added: “This is being supported and funded by the governments of the United States and Germany and several other European countries, which makes them complicit in this crime. If the greatest filmmakers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say this, they should know that history will judge them. I am shocked and disgusted.”
Referring to her film’s planned screening, Roy described it as “something sweet and lovely” and “a whimsical film I wrote 38 years ago.”
From: SNN