The highly politicized edition of the Berlinale ended on Saturday, but the divisions surrounding political messaging during the festival appear to persist.
On Sunday afternoon, the official Berlinale posted a statement on its social media account announcing that it planned to “file criminal charges against unknown persons” who it said had shared “posts about the war in the Middle East.” The posts mentioned by the festival were shared on the official Berlinale Panorama Instagram account and included a series of infographics.
“Genocide is genocide. We are all complicit,” said the first chart.
Another post claimed that festival staff had decided to “get rid of the idea that German guilt absolves us of our country’s history or our current crimes” and, in turn, decided to call for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire” of violence in Gaza.
The posts ended with the following message: “From our unresolved Nazi past to our genocidal present – we have always been on the wrong side of history. But it is not too late to change our future.”
The posts were pulled by the festival shortly after they were posted, but screenshots from eager observers spread across multiple social media platforms. The festival said the posts did not originate from the festival, and that the sentiment “does not represent the position of the Berlinale.”
As the hacked Berlinale posts began circulating online, Kai Wegner, the mayor of Berlin, shared a series of messages on his account
The closing ceremony was packed with many of the winning filmmakers and jury members, including American director Eliza Hittman, who used their time on stage to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“As a Jewish filmmaker who won the 2020 Silver Bear, it is important for me to be here,” Heitman said before highlighting her anti-war stance. There is no just war, and the more people try to convince themselves that there is a just war, the more they commit a heinous act of self-deception.
Other charged speeches included Bassel Adra and Yuval Abraham, the Palestinian-Israeli filmmaking duo behind the Berlinale Documentary Prize-winning film. No other land.
Israeli director Abraham said: “We need to call for a political solution to end the occupation.”
“I am Israeli, Basel is Palestinian. In two days, we will return to the land where we are not equal. I live under civil law, and Basel lives under military law. We live 30 minutes away from each other, but I have voting rights. Basel does not have The right to vote.”
He added: “This state of apartheid among us, and this inequality must end.” We have to call for a ceasefire.”
Adra accused Israel of committing a “massacre” and criticized German arms sales to Israel. While American director Ben Russell won an award for his film Direct action He took to the stage wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh – a protective head and face covering widely seen as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
The Hamas terrorist attack on Israel last year killed 1,200 people. In response, Israel’s air and ground offensive has displaced about 80% of Gaza’s population from their homes, putting hundreds of thousands at risk of starvation and the spread of disease. The Ministry of Health in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip says that 29,692 Palestinians were killed in the conflict, two-thirds of whom were women and children.
In his posts about the concert, the CDU’s Wegener said of the state-backed festival: “There is no place for anti-Semitism in Berlin, and this also applies to the arts scene. “I expect the new management of the Berlinale to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.”
Wegener did not specify which aspect of the ceremony he objected to, but added: “Berlin has a clear position when it comes to freedom. Berlin stands firmly with Israel. There is no doubt about that. The full responsibility for the profound suffering in Israel and the Gaza Strip lies with Hamas.” “Hamas alone has the ability to end this suffering by releasing all the hostages and laying down its weapons. There is no room for relativism here.”
Wegener was elected mayor in April 2023, and since the outbreak of the latest crisis in the Middle East, he has often expressed his support for Israel.
We have reached out to the Berlinale for comment. The festival has not yet responded to our request, but told Agence France-Presse that the filmmakers’ statements are independent and “in no way represent” the views of the Berlinale, and that the statements should be accepted as long as they “respect the legal framework.” . The festival management added that it “understands the outrage” caused by the statements (made by the filmmakers), which “felt to be very biased.”
This year’s Berlinale was the final edition for Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Riesenbeck. The upcoming edition will be led by former London Film Festival president Tricia Tuttle, who was among the audience at the closing ceremony and received a greeting from Riesenbeck. That night, French-Senegalese director Mati Diop won the festival’s prestigious Golden Bear award for his documentary Dahomey. The picture explores the return of looted colonial-era art from France to Benin, West Africa.