Dispute over the opening gala: The AfD complex at the Berlinale

2024-02-09 15:00:18

Film dispute over opening gala

The AfD complex at the Berlinale

Status: 09.02.2024 | Reading time: 3 minutes

Berlinale director Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian

Source: Jens Kalaene/dpa/picture alliance

You can listen to our WELT podcasts here

In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.

First, the Berlinale invites AfD representatives to the opening gala – as has been usual since 2017. Then the film festival explicitly uninvites them – after protests became loud. A storm of indignation rages in both cases. Our author, a long-time Berlinale expert, answers the most important questions.

Shortly before the start of the 74th Berlin Film Festival, there is a bitter debate about whether it was right to invite the AfD representatives to the opening gala next Thursday – and to uninvite them again a few days later, after a storm of indignation. It is a debate with many questions and few satisfactory answers.

Who invited her anyway and why?

The Berlinale sends 100 blank invitations to the Berlin Senate and 200 to the State Ministry of Culture; both support the festival with millions. From both, the Berlinale receives lists of people who should receive an invitation; they are representatives of the administration and parliaments, including the parliamentary group leaders and cultural policy spokesmen of all parties.

The AfD has sat in the Bundestag and the Berlin House of Representatives since 2017. Were their representatives invited for the first time this year?

No, they have always received invitations since 2017 and have also been spotted at previous galas.

Then why the excitement now?

Good question. Presumably because it was the first time there was an organized protest – a list of 200 filmmakers – against it.

Who is on the list?

No familiar names. Filmmakers, producers, actors, costume designers, activists, many from abroad. People like her would be the first to suffer if the AfD ever had an influence on the allocation of funding in federal culture. That means: It already has it, in the local and state parliaments in the east of the republic.

Why no familiar names?

Another good question. Your silence is already noticeable.

Why haven’t filmmakers protested against this before?

Presumably because they have previously underestimated the threat and were only woken up by the mass protests in German cities.

Why has the Berlinale sent invitations to the AfD for years?

Because the AfD representatives got into parliament through democratic elections and all democratically elected representatives receive invitations. That was the reasoning behind the Berlinale until a few days ago. Then the about-face and a new statement from the Berlinale: “Especially in view of the revelations that have been made in recent weeks about explicitly anti-democratic positions and individual AfD politicians, it is important for us – as a Berlinale and as a team – to take an unambiguous stand for an open democracy.” As a consequence, the invitations to the AfD were withdrawn.

It has been clear for years that the AfD represents “explicitly anti-democratic positions”. Not the Berlinale?

Apparently not. No matter how much the festival tries to be politically correct, individual decisions are hardly understandable. The Berlinale has just rejected a disturbing film about the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial.

also read

Auschwitz film out, AfD in

Are the disinvitations legally tenable?

This will have to be clarified if the AfD involves the courts. In any case, the case once again allows her to portray herself as a victim of “the system.” The propaganda gain for the AfD in the long term is greater than the short-term good feeling of the festival.

Can the Berlinale, with its diversity agenda, be expected to welcome representatives of a party that rejects this agenda on almost every point?

It would be a big toad that she would have to swallow, also in view of the filmmaking milieus from which she draws many of her films. The damage to your image abroad would be considerable – and so would the disappointment among your own employees.

What would have been the right decision then?

Extremely difficult to say. Perhaps the invitations for the gala could have been left standing – and explicitly stated from the stage at the event which guests were welcome and which were not.