Venice Film Festival: Wim Wenders pushes back after Berlinale controversy

Wim Wenders has returned to the controversy that followed his Berlinale remarks, insisting at the Venice Film Festival that he was misquoted rather than apolitical.

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I could repeat the same thing I said then. I could express myself even more clearly. What I said then was: We filmmakers are the opposite of politicians. We have empathy.

The 81-year-old filmmaker said he could repeat what he had said at the time, and express it even more clearly. His point, he explained, was that filmmakers are the opposite of politicians because they work with empathy. Politics, he said, functions without empathy.

At the Berlinale, Wenders had been asked about the Gaza war during a jury press conference. He said filmmakers could not truly enter the political arena and should stay out of politics if making exclusively political films, because they were meant to act as a counterweight to politics. He also said filmmakers had to do “the work of human beings,” not the work of politicians.

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We cannot really enter the field of politics.

The remarks were shortened in social media posts, triggering broad political debate over the Gaza war and the political role of filmmakers. The controversy continued throughout the Berlinale and led to an open letter, boycott calls, protests and public statements.

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We do not work with the mindset of politicians. We work with the mindset of empathetic people.

In Venice, Wenders said filmmakers do not work with politicians’ mindset but with the mindset of empathetic people. Filmmakers want to change things, he said, while politics seeks to confirm the status quo. He added that “We have to stay out of politics” was not what he had said, and hoped he would not be misquoted again.

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And that is exactly what I said, and it was quoted as: ‘We have to stay out of politics.’ That was clearly not what I said.