‘Shocked’ by Gaza remarks, Arundhati Roy withdraws from Berlin film festival

Indian author Arundhati Roy has announced her withdrawal from the Berlin International Film Festival, saying she was left “shocked and disgusted” by what she described as “unconscionable statements” made by members of the festival’s jury regarding Israel’s war on Gaza, the Al Jazeera reported.

In a sharply worded essay in The Wire, Roy criticised remarks by jury members — including chair and German filmmaker Wim Wenders — that art should remain apolitical. She called the comments “jaw-dropping”, arguing they sought to shut down discussion of what she described as a crime unfolding “in real time.”

“It is a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us,” wrote Roy, the Booker Prize-winning author of The God of Small Things. She said artists, writers and filmmakers should be doing “everything in their power” to stop the war in Gaza.

Roy unequivocally characterised the ongoing conflict as “a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel”, and further alleged that it is “supported and funded” by the governments of the United States, Germany and several European nations — rendering them complicit.

The controversy erupted during a panel discussion launching the festival, where a journalist questioned jury members about Germany’s support for Israel and what was described as selective attention to human rights concerns. Responding, Wenders said filmmakers “have to stay out of politics”, asserting that cinema should serve as a counterweight to political power rather than an extension of it.

“If we made movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics,” Wenders said. “We are the opposite of politics. We have to do the work of people and not the work of politicians.”

Another juror, Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska, described the question as “a bit unfair”, arguing that filmmakers cannot be held responsible for government policies toward Israel or Palestine. She also noted that other global conflicts receive less attention despite grave human rights violations.

Roy had been scheduled to attend the festival, which runs from 12 to 22 February, for a screening of her 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones in the Classics section. Her withdrawal casts a shadow over the event, amplifying broader debates within Europe’s cultural sphere about artistic freedom and political accountability.

Germany — one of Israel’s largest arms exporters after the United States — has faced mounting criticism from activists and cultural workers over what they describe as stringent measures to curb pro-Palestinian expression. In 2024, more than 500 international artists and writers called for a boycott of German-funded cultural institutions, alleging what they termed “McCarthyist policies” aimed at suppressing solidarity with Palestine.

Roy’s exit from the Berlinale thus transcends a single festival appearance, underscoring the fraught intersection of art, politics and moral responsibility at a moment of profound global division.