“I Hope He’ll Educate Himself”: Berlin Jury Presser Is Charged Affair With Talk Of Germany’s Far-Right, Russia-Ukraine & One Member’s Views On Putin
15.02.2024 - 11:52
/ deadline.com
The build-up to the 74th Berlin Film Festival (Feb 15 – Feb 25) has been highly politicised and the international jury press conference this morning was no different.
Lupita Nyong’o presides over the International Competition jury whose members include American actor and filmmakerBrady Corbet, Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, German director Christian Petzold, Spanish filmmaker Albert Serra, Italian actress Jasmine Trinca, and Ukrainian novelist and poet Oksana Zabuzhko.
This wasn’t like most jury press conferences, however, with members drawn into multiple — occasionally testy — discussions about their own political stances on events in Ukraine, Gaza and Germany.
Russia’s war in Ukraine was a central topic with multiple journalists asking Spanish filmmaker Albert Serra about a 2018 interview in which he supposedly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin. Serra was asked whether he had changed his mind on Putin since the war:
“I don’t know,” said the director. “This is a political question. Everyone is upset with Russia right now. I think politics is more complex than saying someone is a good person or a bad person. You say Trump is a bad person. What changes? It’s just a statement”.
Ukrainian novelist and poet Oksana Zabuzhko, who stood slightly apart from her fellow jurors at the photo call, was asked by the same journalist how she feels sharing a platform with a “Putin admirer”, to which she replied: “I was very intrigued by Albert’s answer. There is some good news. We were at dinner last night and he had a translation of my book about the war so I hope he’ll educate himself a little bit.”
At that point jury head Lupita Nyong’o could be heard to exclaim “Oh, Lord”. Brady Corbet came to Serra’s defence, saying having