Onstage comments at this year’s Berlinale awards ceremony, which saw filmmakers call out the German and Israeli governments for the “genocide in Gaza,” have drawn a political backlash in Germany.
Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah Al-Khatib, winner of the Berlinale Perspectives section for his drama Chronicles of a Siege, said the current German government were “partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel” and noted that “the long awaited day is coming, and when people ask you what happened, tell them: Palestine remembers. We will remember everyone who stood with us, and we will remember everyone who stood against us, against our right to live with dignity, or who choose silence or choose to be silent.”
The comments prompted German environment minister Carsten Schneider to leave the gala in protest. In a statement, a spokesperson of the minister said Schneider “considers these statements unacceptable and therefore left the event during the speech.”
Chronicles of a Siege is an episodic drama following the stories of a Palestinian population under siege amid the ruins of a destroyed city. The city is never named but it bears a strong resemblance to Gaza.
Lebanese director Marie-Rose Osta, whose film Someday a Child won the Golden Bear for best short film, also used the stage for a political statement, denouncing Israeli bombings in her home country and what she described as a “collapse of international law” in the region.
“In reality children in Gaza, in all of Palestine and in my Lebanon do not have superpowers to protect them from Israeli bombs,” she said. “No child should need superpowers to survive a genocide empowered by veto powers and the collapse of international law. … If this Golden Bear means anything, let it mean that Lebanese and Palestinian children are not negotiable,” she said.
Conservative politicians took to the tabloids and social media to snap back at the directors and the Berlinale for giving them the platform.
On X, Alexander Hoffmann, a parliamentarian for the conservative Christian Social Union party, called out what he termed the “disgusting scenes” at the awards ceremony, filled with “absolutely unacceptable…accusations of genocide, antisemitic outbursts and threats against Germany.” In his post, he said the ceremony underscored “the need to take a clear stance and classify antisemitism as particularly serious form of incitement to hatred. Whether in public, at events or online: there must be no platform for Israel haters.”
Speaking to German tabloid Bild, Berlin mayor Kai Wegner said the awards ceremony was “misused for political destruction,” depriving many artists “of their unique moment of recognition for their work.” He claimed that those expressing pro-Palestinian views at the festival, “who present themselves here as pro-Palestinian activists are not concerned with human rights. They are not concerned with dialogue, peace or nuanced criticism. They are solely concerned with hatred of Israel.”
Discussions about Israeli actions are particularly sensitive in Germany, which sees a historic responsibility to support Israel because of the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust. Following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas, that killed more than 1,200 people with more than 250 taken as hostages, the German government said Israel has a right to self-defense. Germany has continued to sell weapons to Israel throughout the conflict, though German Chancellor Friedrich Merz did pause approvals for new exports briefly, between August and November of last year, citing concerns German-made weapons could be used in Gaza.
Merz has also criticized Israeli military action in Gaza, which has resulted in the killing of more than 70,000 people. A study published in the Lancet Global Health medical journal puts the death toll at more than 75,000, with women, children and elderly people among the majority of those killed.
“Some people told me, maybe you have to be careful before you say what I want to say now, because you are a refugee in Germany, and there are so many red lines. But I don’t care. I care about my people, about Palestine,” said Al-Khatib at the Berlinale ceremony, raising a Palestinian flag at the end of his speech.
The Berlin festival saw similar onstage proclamations and experienced a similar political backlash two years ago, when the Israeli-Palestinian documentary No Other Land won both the audience award and the best documentary prize. The film, which went on to win the best documentary feature Oscar, chronicles Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. In his acceptance speech, No Other Land‘s Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham called out what he termed the “apartheid” system in his home country, drawing outrage and accusations of “antisemitism” from (mostly conservative, mostly Christian) politicians in Germany.
This year’s Berlinale was political from start to finish. Jury president Wim Wenders became the target of online outrage after saying, in response to a press conference question on Gaza, that filmmakers “have to stay out of politics.”
At the awards ceremony on Saturday, Wenders tried to strike a conciliatory tone, saying the disputes were largely do to an “artificial discrepancy” between “the language of cinema,” which he described as “empathetic,” and the “effective” language of social media. “Activists are fighting, mainly on the internet, for humanitarian causes, namely the dignity and protection of human life. These are our causes as well, as the Berlinale films clearly show,” said Wenders. Speaking to the activists, he added “Most of us filmmakers applaud you. All of us applaud you. You do necessary and courageous work. But does it need to be in competition with us? Do our languages need to clash?”
Contacted by The Hollywood Reporter, the Berlinale said it would respond on Tuesday.
