“Yellow Letters,” directed by German filmmaker Ilker Katak, won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday in a ceremony depicting the conflict over Gaza, which has dominated this year’s edition of the event.
A political drama, Catak’s film tells the story of a Turkish director and his actor wife who are suddenly barred from working because of their political views.
Jury president Wim Wenders called the film “an eerie foreshadowing, a look at the near future that could possibly happen in our countries too”.
Wenders said, “This is a film that speaks very clearly about the political language of totalitarianism in contrast to the sympathetic language of cinema.”
Katak called Wenders “one of my teachers”, adding: “It’s an incredible thing to receive this award from you.”
The runner-up Silver Bear Grand Jury Award was given to “Salvation” by Emin Alpar, who in his speech noted his solidarity with several high-profile opposition figures in Turkey’s prisons, including jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
Alper also took the opportunity to speak for “the people of Iran suffering under tyranny” and “Palestinians living and dying in the most terrible conditions in Gaza”.
– ‘Part of democracy’ –
Speaking at a press conference at the start of the festival last week, jury president Wim Wenders, responding to a question about the German government’s support for Israel, said: “We can’t really enter the field of politics.”
In the same press conference he said that films had the power to “change the world” but in a different way than politics.
But his comments in response to a question on Israel sparked a wave of outrage.
Award-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, who was scheduled to present a reworked version of a film she wrote in 1989, withdrew from the program, calling Wenders’s words “unconscionable” and “jaw-dropping.”
On Tuesday, an open letter signed by dozens of film industry figures, including actors Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton and director Adam McKay, condemned the Berlin festival’s “silence on the genocide of Palestinians” and accused it of being complicit in “censoring” artists who protest Israel’s actions.
Director Tricia Tuttle, in her second year at the helm of the Berlinale, has strongly rejected the allegations.
In a speech at the start of Saturday’s ceremony he said that “speaking out is part of democracy”.
“We respect people who speak out because it takes a lot of courage to do so,” he said. He added, “We don’t always agree with every claim made about us.”
– ‘Queen at Sea’ –
Other big award winners included German actress Sandra Hueller, who received the Silver Bear for best performance for her title role in Markus Schlenzer’s “Rose.”
The black-and-white drama tells the story of a woman disguising herself as a man to escape the constraints of patriarchy in rural 17th-century Germany.
American director Lance Hammer’s “Queen at Sea”, starring Juliette Binoche as a woman caring for her mother suffering from dementia, won two awards.
The film sensitively portrays the havoc that Alzheimer’s disease wreaks on a patient’s loved ones.
Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall, who played the sick mother in the film, shared the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance.
The film also won the Silver Bear Jury Award, considered the third most prestigious award.
The first major event on the film calendar also provided a platform for Iranian filmmakers to address the deadly crackdown on anti-government protests in their country.
Dissident director Jafar Panahi, who won the Cannes Palme d’Or for “It Was Just an Accident,” also condemned the Iranian government’s repression of protesters at the Berlinale, which rights groups say has left thousands dead.
“An unbelievable crime has taken place. There has been a mass murder. People are not even allowed to mourn their loved ones,” Panahi said at a talk held as part of the festivities.
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