A-list stars to confront dicey politics at Berlin film festival
BERLIN: New movies starring Cillian Murphy, Kristen Stewart, Gael Garcia Bernal and Adam Sandler will top the line-up of the Berlin film festival starting Thursday which risks getting upended by geopolitics.
Battered by the pandemic and last year’s strikes in Hollywood, international cinema is enjoying a strong rebound and sending some of its leading lights to the wintry German capital for 11 days of premieres and parties.
But the war in Gaza, cultural repression in Iran and an increasingly emboldened far right in Germany risk spoiling the festival atmosphere at the 74th annual event known as the Berlinale, Europe’s first major cinema showcase of the year.
“In the past the festival has allowed global politics to be in focus -- last year with the war in Ukraine for example,” The Hollywood Reporter’s European bureau chief Scott Roxborough told AFP.
“Gaza is a topic on the streets in Berlin this year and could be extremely polarising,” with filmmakers asked to declare their stance on the war and protests expected under the Berlinale spotlight.
He noted a small number of directors had pulled their entries ahead of the event in protest against the German government’s support for Israel.
The Berlinale however dodged another hot-button issue likely to have sparked demonstrations by rescinding an opening-night invitation to five representatives of the resurgent far-right Alternative for Germany party after a deluge of criticism.
The festival’s outgoing director duo, Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, said the officials were “not welcome at the Berlinale” in a stand against “anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim resentment (and) hate speech”.
Fantasy and sci-fi
Meanwhile the event, which has long championed Iran’s embattled directors, has urged Tehran to allow two filmmakers who have reportedly been slapped with a travel ban to attend.
Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha had been due to present their new movie “My Favourite Cake”, about the strictures imposed on Iran’s women, among 20 films in competition.
Murphy, who is nominated for a best actor Oscar for his turn in “Oppenheimer”, will kick off the festival with the drama “Small Things Like This” about the systematic abuse of “fallen” women at Irish laundries run by the Catholic Church.
The Irish star reunited for the movie with Belgian film-maker Tim Mielants, who directed him in the hit series “Peaky Blinders”.
Stewart, who led last year’s Berlinale jury, will show “Love Lies Bleeding” about a violent liaison between a gym manager and a bisexual bodybuilder. — AFP