Berlin film festival organisers to hold crisis talks amid Gaza rows

The organisation that manages the Berlin film festival is to meet for talks amid reports that its American director faces dismissal after a series of rows over Gaza.In a statement on Wednesday, the office of Germany’s federal government commissioner for culture and media said the emergency meeting on Thursday had been called to debate the “future direction of the Berlinale”.The newspaper Bild reported that the meeting could result in the firing of Tricia Tuttle, the US director of the festival since 2024, after controversy over pro-Palestinian speeches at the closing gala, one of which criticised Germany as “partners in the genocide”.KBB, the state-owned company that runs the festival, dismissed the report, telling AFP: “We believe this is fake news.”The Berlinale traditionally sees itself as a more overtly political film festival than its commercial rivals Cannes and Venice, and tries to channel geopolitical conflicts around the globe.But the war in Gaza has proven a major friction point at the festival and across Germany’s culture sector as a whole, as a diverse scene of international artists has rubbed up against a strong pro-Israel consensus among the political authorities that steer its finances.At Saturday’s awards ceremony in the German capital, the Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah al-Khatib was given the Perspectives first film prize for his drama Chronicles From the Siege, a series of interlocking vignettes set in an unnamed Palestinian city.In his acceptance speech, al-Khatib said: “My final word to the German government: you are partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel. I believe you are intelligent enough to recognise this truth, but you choose to not care.”He said Palestinians “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.”In a separate speech, the Lebanese director Marie-Rose Osta criticised Israel while accepting the Golden Bear prize for best short film for Someday a Child.“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, referring to a plot line of her film. “No child should need superpowers to survive a genocide empowered by veto powers and the collapse of international law.”Germany’s environment minister, Carsten Schneider, of the Social Democratic party, reportedly walked out during al-Khatib’s speech, later saying in a statement that he considered the film-maker’s accusations “not acceptable”.Al-Khatib’s remarks also drew condemnation from Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor. Alexander Hoffmann, the parliamentary group leader of the Christian Social Union, partners in Germany’s coalition government, accused al-Khatib of “antisemitic slurs and threats against Germany”.According to sources cited by Bild, Wolfram Weimer, the culture commissioner, decided to relieve Tuttle of her duties after seeing not only the speeches but also a picture taken a week earlier.The photograph showed Tuttle with the Chronicles From the Siege crew, several of whom were wearing keffiyeh scarves and one of whom was displaying a Palestinian flag.The photograph shows Tuttle with the Chronicles From the Siege crew, several of whom are wearing keffiyeh scarves and one of whom is displaying a Palestinian flag. Photograph: BerlinaleTuttle, who helmed the BFI London film festival from 2018 to 2022, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.Weimer’s office on Wednesday confirmed that an extraordinary meeting of the KBB supervisory board would be held on Thursday at the culture commissioner’s initiative. “The meeting will include a discussion on the future direction of the Berlinale,” the statement said. “We will not comment on any further speculation.”At the start of Berlinale, the festival organisers had drawn criticism from activists for not positioning itself unambiguously on the war in Gaza. At the opening press conference, the veteran director and jury president, Wim Wenders, rejected the notion that artists and cultural institutions must actively take political stances.“We have to stay out of politics because if we make movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics,” Wenders said. “But we are the counterweight of politics, we are the opposite of politics. We have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians.”The remarks prompted the Indian author Arundhati Roy to cancel her appearance and were condemned in an open letter signed by more than 80 active or former Berlinale participants, but were vigorously defended by Tuttle.“Artists are free to exercise their right of free speech in whatever way they choose,” Tuttle said at the time. “Artists should not be expected to comment on all broader debates about a festival’s previous or current practices over which they have no control. Nor should they be expected to speak on every political issue raised to them unless they want to.”