{"id":313402,"date":"2026-02-23T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=313402"},"modified":"2026-02-22T17:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T17:24:12","slug":"unconscionable-arundhati-roy-leaves-berlinale-after-jury-comments-on-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/02\/unconscionable-arundhati-roy-leaves-berlinale-after-jury-comments-on-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Unconscionable\u2019: Arundhati Roy Leaves Berlinale after Jury Comments on Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>14 Feb 2026 &#8211;<em>\u00a0Indian author and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy withdrew from the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival after remarks by jury president Wim Wenders that filmmakers should remain outside politics ignited a dispute linked to Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza, quickly turning the festival\u2019s opening into a broader debate about the role of art during wartime.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Arundhati-Roy-2026-Berlin-International-Film-Festival.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-313403\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Arundhati-Roy-2026-Berlin-International-Film-Festival.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Arundhati-Roy-2026-Berlin-International-Film-Festival.webp 678w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Arundhati-Roy-2026-Berlin-International-Film-Festival-300x201.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"header-anchor-post\"><strong>Key Takeaways:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Roy canceled her Berlinale appearance following comments urging artists to stay apolitical.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Wenders argued cinema can influence society but \u201cnot in a political way.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Roy said the stance suppresses discussion of \u201ca crime against humanity.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The dispute unfolded amid scrutiny of Germany\u2019s political support for Israel.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Roy reiterated her claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 class=\"header-anchor-post\"><strong>Press Conference Sparks Controversy<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>The controversy began during the opening press conference of the Berlin International Film Festival on Thursday, when journalists questioned the international competition jury about Gaza and whether films can influence political change.<\/p>\n<p>According to an article published in The Guardian on Friday, German filmmaker Wim Wenders said cinema has transformative power but insisted it does not operate politically, stating that \u201cmovies can change the world\u201d but \u201cnot in a political way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He argued filmmakers \u201chave to stay out of politics\u201d because explicitly political filmmaking moves artists into the realm of politicians rather than acting as \u201cthe counterweight of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The exchange took place as reporters asked the jury about Germany\u2019s backing of Israel \u2014 a sensitive issue given the German government provides significant funding to the festival.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Kudos to Arundhati Roy for not bowing down to pressure from Berlinale Film Festival. All art is political &amp; the question is: What kind of politics are you promoting? Genocide enabling or anti-genocide politics? (Btw, her recent book was a pleasure to read)\u2026 <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HRHfVSl6IT\"  rel=\"\">pic.twitter.com\/HRHfVSl6IT<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Muneeb Qadir (@muneebqadirmmq) <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/muneebqadirmmq\/status\/2022636254660346056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\"  rel=\"\">February 14, 2026<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4 class=\"header-anchor-post\"><strong>Roy Announces Withdrawal<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Roy, who had been scheduled to attend a screening of the restored version of her 1989 film <em>In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones<\/em> in the festival\u2019s Classics section, announced the following day that she would not participate.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement reported by <em>The Guardian<\/em>, the renowned author described Wenders\u2019 comments as \u201cunconscionable,\u201d adding that hearing claims that art should not be political was \u201cjaw-dropping.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said the position amounted to \u201ca way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time \u2014 when artists, writers and film-makers should be doing everything in their power to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roy also directly addressed the war in Gaza, stating that<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cwhat has happened in Gaza, what continues to happen, is a genocide of the Palestinian people by the state of Israel.\u201d She further said the actions are \u201csupported and funded by the governments of the United States and Germany, as well as several other countries in Europe,\u201d making them \u201ccomplicit in the crime.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Roy added she had been <em>\u201cprofoundly disturbed\u201d<\/em> by the positions taken by German authorities and cultural institutions on Palestine, though she noted she had often received solidarity from German audiences when discussing Gaza.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"header-anchor-post\"><strong>Responses from the Jury<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Other members of the jury sought to distance the festival from political responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>Producer Ewa Puszczy\u0144ska said the panel\u2019s role was to engage viewers intellectually but that it <em>\u201ccannot be responsible\u201d<\/em> for whether audiences support Israel or Palestine. She also remarked that <em>\u201cthere are many other wars where genocide is committed and we do not talk about that,\u201d<\/em> according to <em>The Guardian.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The international jury includes filmmakers and actors from the United States, Japan, Nepal, South Korea, India and Poland, highlighting the global scope of the disagreement.<\/p>\n<p>The episode reflects ongoing tensions across European cultural spaces, where artists and festivals have increasingly faced scrutiny over statements, programming decisions and public silence regarding Gaza.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/palestinechronicle.substack.com\/p\/unconscionable-arundhati-roy-leaves\" >Go to Original &#8211; palestinechronicle.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>14 Feb 2026 &#8211;\u00a0Indian author and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy withdrew from the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival after remarks by jury president Wim Wenders that filmmakers should remain outside politics ignited a dispute linked to Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza, quickly turning the festival\u2019s opening into a broader debate about the role of art during wartime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":313403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[3903,915,1637,87,865,88,3106,427,109],"class_list":["post-313402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","tag-2026-berlin-international-film-festival","tag-art","tag-arundhati-roy","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-movies","tag-palestine","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313402"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313405,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313402\/revisions\/313405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}