‘Shocked and disgusted’: Arundhati Roy exits Berlinale over jury’s Gaza remarks

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Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, on Friday, February 13, withdrew from the Berlin International Film Festival after jury president Wim Wenders said filmmakers should remain outside politics when questioned about the conflict in Gaza.

Roy said in a statement that she was “shocked and disgusted” by Wenders’ response at a press conference. “With deep regret, I must say that I will not be attending the Berlinale,” she said.

Roy had been invited as a festival guest to present a restored version of the 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, in which she starred and wrote the screenplay. The film was selected for the festival’s Classics section.

At the press conference, when asked about Germany’s support for Israel, Wenders said, “We cannot really enter the field of politics,” describing filmmakers as “the counterweight to politics”. 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.”

Roy described these remarks as “unconscionable”. She said, “To hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping.” Expanding on her position, she wrote that such calls for artistic neutrality were “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 film-makers should be doing everything in their power to stop it.”

Roy added that although she had been “profoundly disturbed” by the positions taken by the German government and various German cultural institutions on Palestine, she had “always received political solidarity” when speaking to German audiences about her views on Gaza.

She further said, “Let me say this clearly. What has happened in Gaza, what continues to happen, is a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel.” She further wrote that the violence was “supported and funded by the governments of the United States and Germany, as well as several other countries in Europe, which makes them complicit in the crime.”

“If the greatest filmmakers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so,” she said, “they should know that history will judge them.” She reiterated that she was “shocked and disgusted” by the jury’s remarks, adding that the statements were troubling not only for what they said about art but for “what they declined to name”.

Another juror, Ewa Puszczyńska, called questions linking the festival to Germany’s support for Israel “a bit unfair,” adding that artists could not be responsible for the political choices of audiences.

Reflecting on her film’s inclusion in the Classics section, Roy said there had been “something sweet and wonderful” about the restored screening of In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, describing it as “a whimsical film that I wrote 38 years ago.”

She concluded her statement by reiterating her regret at not being able to attend the festival, saying her decision came “with deep regret” but was necessary in light of the circumstances.