The creative team behind the Berlinale competition title Nightborn gave a strong, collective response to a question about the ongoing debate around politics at the festival during a press conference this afternoon.
“Art doesn’t necessarily have to be political,” Ilja Rautsi, who co-wrote the film with director Hanna Bergholm, told journalists in Berlin. “But then everything is, no matter what you do, and since we can’t really affect a genocidal situation with art, when we have this spotlight on us, it is important to shine a light on whatever issues we are facing because art is all about empathy.”
Rautsi continued to say that “the people who can solve problems, the politicians and millionaires don’t do anything but cause problems,” so it is important to “create some form of pressure” to make sure “people are aware of whatever is happening in the world, and the wrongs taking place, like in Ukraine or the genocide in Palestine.”
Bergholm said that she agrees with Rautsi and she believes that as “grown-up human beings we have a responsibility to speak up against violence and against injustice, because not speaking up is also a choice.”
The Finnish filmmaker added that she believes it is “especially important that we don’t tell other fellow artists that they shouldn’t speak up when 10s of 1000s of people are getting killed. No one can say there’s no excuse for that ever.”
The position filmmakers and film festivals should take in response to global politics has been a hot topic at this year’s event, following 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.
Nightborn is Hanna Bergholm’s sophomore feature. The film follows Seidi Haarla, Rupert Grint, Pamela Tola, Pirkko Saisio, and Rebecca Lacey. Bergholm wrote the screenplay with Ilja Rautsi. It was produced by Daniel Kuitunen.
The film’s synopsis reads: With dreams of starting a perfect family, Saga and her British husband Jon move to the isolated house where she spent much of her childhood, deep in the Finnish forest. But as soon as their baby is born, despite the reassurance of all around her, Saga knows there’s something terribly wrong with her son. As their marriage starts to crack, Jon struggles to support his wife, but only Saga suspects the terrible truth about her newborn.
Later during the presser, Grint was asked by a journalist whether he planned to speak out against “the rise of fascism in the U.K” because he had previously discussed J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans views publicly.
“Obviously, I’m against it,” he said in response. “But I choose my moments when to speak. Obviously, it’s hugely relevant now. You’ll hear from me.”
Goodfellas is handling sales on the title.
Berlinale runs until Feb 22.