Berlin – The Berlin Film Festival opened this week with a string of the world’s top stars expected to walk its famed red carpet over the next 11 days of the movie showcase.
But one international celebrity not expected at the Berlinale is already dominating the festival’s proceedings – US President Donald Trump.
“Are you here for the festival? Or is someone keeping you from going back to your home country?” German comedian Anke Engelke asked the star-studded international audience attending the Berlinale’s gala opening on Thursday night to a roar of laughter.
As the gala’s moderator, Engelke also used the German hit movie and Oscar hopeful “Toni Erdmann” to fire off a few more shots at the new president.
“It’s about an old man with a weird hairdo who has a troubling relationship with his daughter – just what America loves,” Engelke told the audience.
However, not only at the festival’s opening night, but also at the press conferences, among members of the jury and in the labyrinth of booths making up the Berlinale’s film industry arm, the European Film Market, the talk is about the new president and his bid to upend the established order.
“Yes, he does have a mental illness,” said British actor Steve Coogan about his character in US director Oren Moverman’s “The Dinner,” which premiered at the festival on Friday.
“But compared with the president of the United States, it looks like a mild headache,” quipped Coogan, who plays a history teacher who became unhinged over time as he faced up to some of the darker moments in US history.
Actor Richard Gere at the 67th Berlin Fil Festival. Hollywood star Richard Gere said on Friday that US President Donald Trump had committed “the biggest crime” by linking refugees with terrorists. (Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa)
The Berlinale prides itself on being the world’s most political film festival with this year’s programme packed with movies exploring themes such as minority rights, migrants, climate change and the perceived failure of the world’s leading political movements.
Many of these themes correspond with the controversial stances taken by Trump, who called for a Muslim ban during his campaign, suggested that climate change is a hoax, bragged about groping women and announced plans to build a wall between Mexico and the US.
But while some of the world’s stars have been trashing the Trump White House, the global film industry attending the market are concerned by the president’s hard-line trade talk and his claims of currency manipulation by countries such as Japan, China and Germany.
Gaining access to foreign markets and currencies are key parts of the deals for distribution and rights that are hammered out in the European Film Market, which is the first major film market of the year.
For the most part, it has been left to the stars and the filmmakers to make the case for large parts of the movie industry’s opposition to the Trump presidency which Moverman said he once saw as “unimaginable.”
Last year, Hollywood stars like George Clooney were also telling the world that a Trump victory was out of the question.
But on Friday, fellow Hollywood actor Richard Gere said the US was now unable to escape the realities of the Trump administration accusing the president of committing “the biggest crime” by linking refugees with terrorists and fueling fear.
Gere stars alongside Coogan in “The Dinner,” which tells the story of a family facing the moral dilemma of what to do about their children who have committed a terrible crime.
Almost 30 years after the Berlin Wall was brought down in a popular uprising, Trump has now announced plans to brick off Mexico from the US with a wall he believes will head off illegal immigration.
And by an extraordinary coincidence, Mexico has been selected as the European Film Market’s focus nation.
“I’m here to investigate how to tear down walls,” said Mexican actor Diego Luna, who is one of the seven members of the Berlinale’s jury.
“Apparently, there are many experts here and I want to bring that information back to Mexico,” said Luna, who shot to global fame in 2001 with the Mexican coming-of-age drama “Y Tu Mama Tambien” (“And Your Mother Too”).
“It’s an amazing time to be an American at an international festival,” said US actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is also a member of the jury, adding that many Americans were ready to stand up against the new president.
“I feel like I want to let the world know that there are many, many people in my country who are ready to resist,” she said.
-dpa
