‘Shocked and disgusted’: Arundhati Roy withdraws from Berlin International Film Festival; here’s why
Award-winning Indian author Arundhati Roy has withdrawn from the Berlin International Film Festival, citing comments by jury president Wim Wenders that cinema should “stay out of politics”.
Roy said in a statement on Friday that she was “shocked and disgusted” by responses from Wenders and other jury members to a question about Gaza at a press conference the previous day.
The author, whose novel The God of Small Things won the 1997 Booker Prize, had been due to attend the festival to present a restored version of the 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, in which she starred and wrote the screenplay. However, she said the “unconscionable” remarks had led her to reconsider her participation “with deep regret”.
When asked about Germany’s support for Israel, Wenders told reporters: “We cannot really enter the field of politics,” describing filmmakers as “the counterweight to politics”. Fellow jury member Ewa Puszczynska said it was “a little bit unfair” to expect the jury to take a direct stance on the issue.
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Roy criticised the position, saying that “to hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping”. She described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel” and warned that “history will judge” leading artists and filmmakers if they fail to speak out.
Roy is one of India’s most prominent contemporary writers and a longstanding critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, as well as an outspoken supporter of the Palestinian cause.
The festival has also seen the withdrawal of restored versions of two films by late Egyptian directors: Sad Song of Touha by Atteyat Al Abnoudy and The Dislocation of Amber by Hussein Shariffe.
A spokeswoman for the Berlinale said the festival respected the decisions and regretted that the filmmakers’ presence would no longer enrich the event’s discourse.
The Berlinale has traditionally been known for topical and progressive programming, but this year several high-profile guests have avoided taking firm positions on political issues.
US actor Neil Patrick Harris, appearing at the festival for the film Sunny Dancer, said he was interested in creating work that was “apolitical” and could help foster connection in what he described as a “strangely algorithmic and divided world”.
This year’s Honorary Golden Bear recipient, Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh, also declined to comment on US politics at a press conference, saying she could not presume to fully understand the situation.
The festival has previously faced controversy over the Gaza conflict. In 2024, its documentary award went to No Other Land, which follows the dispossession of Palestinian communities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. German government officials criticised what they described as “one-sided” remarks about Gaza made by the film’s directors and others during the awards ceremony.
The current war began after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza has left at least 71,000 people dead, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, whose figures the United Nations considers reliable.