{"id":12567,"date":"2026-02-14T05:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/12567\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T05:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:30:10","slug":"why-arundhati-roy-pulled-out-of-berlin-film-festival-india-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/12567\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Arundhati Roy pulled out of Berlin Film Festival| India News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Award-winning Indian author Arundhati Roy<\/a> on Friday withdrew from the Berlin Film Festival over jury president Wim Wenders\u2019 remarks that cinema should \u201cstay out of politics\u201d when the German director was asked about his country\u2019s support for Israel’s military actions in the Palestinian territory of Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ArundhatiArundhati Roy said the “unconscionable” remarks made by Wenders and other jury members made her rethink her participation. (AFP)<\/p>\n

When asked about Germany’s backing of Israel during a press conference on Thursday, Wenders said: “We cannot really enter the field of politics”, and described filmmakers as “the counterweight to politics”.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ | \u2018Not a promotion of smoking\u2019: SC junks plea against Arundhati Roy book cover<\/a>\u2018Shocked and disgusted\u2019: Why Arundhati Roy pulled out of Berlin Film Festival<\/p>\n

Roy, whose novel \u2018The God of Small Things\u2019 won the 1997 Booker Prize, had been announced as a guest at the festival to present a restored print of the 1989 film \u2018In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones\u2019, in which she acted and also wrote the script.<\/p>\n

The Indian writer said she felt “shocked and disgusted” by replies given by Wenders and other jury members to a question about the Palestinian territory at Thursday\u2019s press event, she told news agency AFP.<\/p>\n

She said the “unconscionable” remarks made by Wenders and other jury members made her rethink her participation, “with deep regret”.<\/p>\n

Roy also said in the statement that “to hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping”. She called Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza “a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel”.<\/p>\n

“If the greatest filmmakers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so, they should know that history will judge them,” she said.<\/p>\n

Restored prints of two films by late Egyptian directors, “Sad Song of Touha” by Atteyat Al Abnoudy and “The Dislocation of Amber” by Hussein Shariffe, have also been pulled from the festival over its position on Gaza.<\/p>\n

“The Berlinale respects these decisions,” a spokeswoman said in a statement sent to AFP.<\/p>\n

“We regret that we will not welcome them as their presence would have enriched the festival discourse,” she said.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ | HT\u2009Archives: Arundhati Roy wins Booker for her debut novel<\/a>Not the first time Berlin festival has run into controversy over Gaza war<\/p>\n

The Berlin Film Festival<\/a> is known for programmes that reflect current issues and progressive themes. However, this year\u2019s edition has seen several celebrities avoid taking clear positions on major political matters.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time the festival has faced controversy linked to the Gaza war.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the festival\u2019s documentary prize went to “No Other Land”, which documents the displacement of Palestinian communities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

German government officials criticised what they called “one-sided” remarks about Gaza made by the film\u2019s directors and others at that year\u2019s award ceremony.<\/p>\n

The Gaza war began after Hamas\u2019s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,221 people, AFP reported based on official Israeli figures. Israel\u2019s response has resulted in at least 71,000 deaths in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.<\/p>\n

With inputs from agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Award-winning Indian author Arundhati Roy on Friday withdrew from the Berlin Film Festival over jury president Wim Wenders\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[9618,112,3146,2246,190,3126,9663,4654],"class_list":{"0":"post-12567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-arundhati-roy","9":"tag-berlin","10":"tag-berlin-film-festival","11":"tag-gaza","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-israel-gaza-news","15":"tag-wim-wenders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}