A politically-charged Berlin film festival opened on Thursday with a biopic about Nazi persecution of Gypsy-jazz great Django Reinhardt and a vow by Hollywood’s Maggie Gyllenhaal that Americans were “ready to resist” Donald Trump. A total of 18 movies are vying for the festival’s coveted Golden Bear, which will be awarded on Feb 18 by a jury led by director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Elle).

“I hope we will see a lot of movies that are different, hopefully controversial,” the Dutch film-maker said at the opening press conference, adding that he was ready for “heated arguments” with the jury. Living up to the Berlinale’s reputation as the most politically minded of the big festivals, his fellow jury members wasted no time in taking aim at the US president who has drawn fierce criticism from the art world, particularly over his disputed travel ban.

“I want people to know there are many, many people in my country that are ready to resist,” 39-year-old Gyllenhaal told reporters. Mexican director and actor Diego Luna, at the same press conference, used humour to criticise Trump’s plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico. “I’m here to investigate how to tear down walls,” the star of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story quipped, in a nod to Berlin’s decades-long history as a divided city.

In keeping with its long post-war tradition, the event will mix arthouse cinema from European veterans including Poland’s Agnieszka Holland, Britain’s Sally Potter, Germany’s Volker Schloendorff, previous Golden Bear winner Calin Peter Netzer of Romania and Aki Kaurismaki of Finland with new features from Brazil, South Korea, China and Senegal.

Organisers said the Berlinale, which is sponsored by the German government, would send a message of “cultural diversity to fight populist over-simplification”. Last year the Golden Bear went to Italian refugee documentary Fire at Sea from a jury led by Meryl Streep. It is nominated for an Academy Award this month.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2017