Indian author Arundhati Roy quits Berlinale after ‘stay out of politics’ Gaza comments

South China Morning PostEN 1 min read 100% complete by Agence France-PresseFebruary 14, 2026 at 07:12 AM

AI Summary

short article 1 min

Indian author Arundhati Roy withdrew from the Berlin Film Festival after expressing shock and disgust at comments made by jury president Wim Wenders and other jury members regarding Gaza. Roy was scheduled to present a restored version of her 1989 film, *In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones*, at the festival. The controversy arose during a press conference where Wenders, when questioned about Germany's support for Israel, stated that cinema should "stay out of politics." Roy deemed these statements "unconscionable" and cited them as the reason for her withdrawal. Fellow jury member Ewa Puszczynska also stated it was unfair to expect the jury to take a direct stance on the issue.

Key Entities & Roles

Key Player Opposition Context

Ewa Puszczynska 30% Israel 40% Germany 50% Gaza Strip 60% Berlin Film Festival 70% Wim Wenders ×580% Arundhati Roy ×490%

Keywords

arundhati roy 100% berlinale 90% film festival 80% wim wenders 80% gaza 70% politics 70% jury 60% statement 60% israel 40% palestinian territory 40%

Sentiment Analysis

Negative

Score: -0.30

Source Transparency

Source

South China Morning Post

Classification Confidence

90%

This article was automatically classified using rule-based analysis.

Topic Connections

Explore how the topics in this article connect to other news stories

No topic relationship data available yet. This graph will appear once topic relationships have been computed.

arundhati roy berlinale film festival wim wenders gaza politics jury statement israel palestinian territory

Explore Full Topic Graph

Find Similar Articles

AI-Powered

Discover articles with similar content using semantic similarity analysis.