Warm applause for Ukraine and Iran’s protests at the opening of the Berlinale

16.02.2023

Rarely has the opening of the Berlinale been so emotional. The 73rd session of the festival comes in light of wars and disasters in Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and Syria. The audience applauded standing for the speech of the Ukrainian President and when he spoke about the Iranian protests.

At the opening of the 73rd edition of Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) This Thursday evening (February 16, 2023), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an emotional appeal to filmmakers and artists to support his country in the face of the Russian attack on it, which began on February 24.

In his video speech at the opening ceremony of the festival, Zelensky asked: “Can art move away from politics?”, indicating that this question has once again become very important.

The organizers of the festival and the German Minister of State for Culture, Claudia Roth, promised solidarity with Ukraine. The audience applauded standing for the Ukrainian president. Zelensky, a former comedian, emphasized in his speech that cinema and films can transcend barriers, whether real or ideological. He recalled the movie “Wim Wenders” “The Sky Over Berlin”, which proactively predicted the end of the German division, and said that Russia is building today a new wall in Ukraine, “this is a wall between freedom and slavery.”

Zelensky accused the “Russian aggressors” of committing war crimes, murder and terrorism and of pursuing a “policy of total war”, and said that art cannot remain indifferent because in silence “the voice of evil alone will become louder and more convincing”.

Before Zelensky delivered his speech via video, he spoke American actor and director Sean Penn At the opening ceremony, the American star will present his documentary film about Ukraine, called “A Superpower”, at the festival. Bean had started the film with his colleague Aaron Kaufman in Ukraine at the beginning of 2021, and during filming Russian President Vladimir Putin began his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and Bean explained that the film had completely changed from what was planned after the start of the war.

Sympathy for the protesters in Iran

In addition to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the violent suppression of the protest movement in Iran is also at the center of the festival’s attention, as the Berlinale also sheds light on the condition of the people in Iran. Many women on the red carpet, including the German-Iranian actress Yasmine Tabatabaei, raised a white banner with the slogan “Women are free lives.” On stage, the artist, Golshifteh Farahani, drew attention to the situation in her country, saying: “This regime will fall.” The guests responded with standing ovation, according to the German “rbb24” website.

Claudia Root: Art and politics don’t get in the way of each other

In her speech at the opening of the festival, Minister of State for Culture Claudia Root emphasized the importance of culture in periods of war and crisis, and said that whoever “films films and displays films in dark periods, he resists lack of freedom all over the world. She referred to the struggles of women in Iran and Afghanistan, earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey, and people threatened by war in Ukraine.

Roth added that the Berlinale ensures that “art and politics do not get in the way of each other, nor do they lose sight of each other.”

The Berlinale, along with Cannes and Venice, is the largest film festival in the world. The activities of the current edition of the festival will continue in Berlin from the sixteenth to the twenty-sixth of this month. The comedy “She Came to Me” directed by Rebecca Miller was chosen as the opening film at the festival.