Berlinale 2024 | Berlin Film Festival jury questions move to uninvite far-right
The Hindu
The organisers withdrew invites to Alternative for Germany (AfD) members last week amid a nationwide uproar after it emerged members of the party had discussed deportations of ethnic minorities at a secret meeting.
Two star members of the Berlin Film Festival's jury on Thursday criticised a decision to withdraw invitations to hard-right politicians, with one suggesting the event could have broadened the lawmakers' horizons.
Five members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party were invited to the opening ceremony on Thursday evening alongside other elected politicians.
But organisers withdrew the invites last week amid a nationwide uproar after it emerged members of the party had discussed deportations of ethnic minorities at a secret meeting.
German director Christian Petzold, whose film Afire won the festival's Grand Jury Prize last year, and Italian actor Jasmine Trinca both said the decision was not conducive to open discussion.
"We are not cowards," Petzold told journalists at a news conference presenting the jury. "If we can't stand five members of the AfD as part of the audience, we will lose our fight."
Trinca, whose TV series Supersex about porn star Rocco Siffredi will show at the fest, said cinema had the power to change people's perspectives.
The five politicians could have sat in the audience, watched the "works of cinema chosen by the Berlinale to represent this time and moment in life", and broadened their perspectives, Trinca said.