80 actors and directors criticize the silence of the Berlin festival regarding Gaza – Mehr News Agency | RCO News Agency
According to the Mehr news agency, citing the site of the extra-regional Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, the signatories of this stateme declared that they were shocked by the “institutional silence of the Berlin festival” and expressed their displeasure with “complicity in censorship against artists who oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
This stateme was published after the coroversy that Wim Wenders, the head of the jury of the festival, created last week by answering a question about Gaza; He said “we should stay away from politics”.
British director Mike Lee and American filmmaker Adam McKay are among the other promine signatories of this letter.
Many of the signatories have previously preseed works at the Berlin festival, and Tilda Swion won the festival’s prestigious “Golden Bear” award last year. In their stateme, they emphasized that they strongly disagree with Wenders’ statemes and consider it impossible to separate cinema from politics.
In the coinuation of this letter, it is stated: The Berlin Festival must fulfill its moral duty and declare its clear opposition to the Israeli genocide.
The signatories also criticized not only the festival’s neutral stance towards the Gaza war, but also protested the ceral role of the German governme in providing the basis for this situation.
