UPDATE: The Berlinale has responded to Roy’s cancellation with a spokesperson telling Deadline: “The Berlinale respects this decision. We regret that we will not welcome Arundhati Roy as her presence would have enriched the festival discourse.”
PREVIOUS: Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy says she has canceled her planned attendance at this week’s Berlin Film Festival due to comments made at the jury presser that artists should stay out of politics.
Fielding questions about the war in Gaza and whether films can affect political change, jury head Wim Wenders said that “movies can change the world” but “not in a political way.”
He added that filmmakers “have to stay out of politics because if we make movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics. But we are the counterweight of politics, we are the opposite of politics. We have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians.”
The comments surprised many festival guests and journalists.
In a statement Friday announcing her withdrawal, The God of Small Things author Roy, who had been planning to attend a screening of her recently restored 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, called the jury comments “unconscionable.”
In the statement to Indian outlet The Wire, the Indian author said: “To hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping. It is a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time – when artists, writers and filmmakers should be doing everything in their power to stop it.”
She added: “Although I have been profoundly disturbed by the positions taken by the German government and various German cultural institutions on Palestine, I have always received political solidarity when I have spoken to German audiences about my views on the genocide in Gaza.”
She concluded: “If the greatest filmmakers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so, they should know that history will judge them. I am shocked and disgusted. With deep regret, I must say that I will not be attending the Berlinale.”; Fe
Also speaking at the jury presser Thursday was The Zone of Interest producer Ewa Puszczynska, who was asked for her thoughts on whether the German government, which backs the festival, was complicit in genocide in Gaza.
“There are many other wars where genocide is committed, and we do not talk about that. So this is a very complicated question and I think it’s a bit unfair asking us what do you think, how we support, not support…” she said.
Festival chief Tricia Tuttle was keen to move the conversation at the presser away from politics and onto films.
The Berlinale has long been considered a forum for political expression and a crucible for debate about important world affairs, but avoiding political comment has seemingly been a trend at this year’s event, whether by chance, design or out of fear. Actors Michelle Yeoh and Neil Patrick Harris also chose to sidestep questions today asking for their reaction to the fraught political situation in the U.S.
We have reached out to the festival for comment about Roy’s cancellation.