Some award winners spoke out in favour of the Palestinian cause, pushing back after jury president Wim Wenders had sparked outrage earlier by trying to steer the festival away from the issue.
Festival director Tricia Tuttle acknowledged Saturday that this year’s edition had been “emotionally charged” after days of sometimes acrimonious debate on how far filmmaking should intervene in politics.
Catak’s film tells the story of a Turkish director and his actor wife, suddenly barred from working because of their political opinions.
Wenders called the film “a terrifying premonition, a look into the near future that could possibly happen in our countries as well”.
While set in Turkey, the film was shot in Germany, an artistic choice to make the point that threats to liberty are universal.
The runner-up Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to “Salvation” by Emin Alper, who in his speech expressed solidarity with several high-profile opposition figures in prison in Turkey, including jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
Alper’s film, inspired by a true story, shows the consequences of a feud over land between two clans in a remote mountain village.
He took the opportunity to speak up for “the people of Iran suffering under tyranny” and “Kurds in Rojava and the Middle East struggling for their rights for almost a century — you are not alone”.
Alper also spoke of “the Palestinians in Gaza living and dying under the most terrible conditions”.
Alper was not the only award-winner to express support for the Palestinians.
Syrian-Palestinian director Abdullah Al-Khatib won Best First Feature Award for “Chronicles From the Siege”.
He accepted the award with a keffiyeh draped over his shoulder and gave an impassioned speech in which addressed the German government by saying: “You are partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel.”
Speaking at a press conference at the beginning of the festival last week, Wenders answered a question about the German government’s support for Israel by saying: “We cannot really enter the field of politics.”
Award-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, who had been due to present a restored version of a 1989 film she wrote, pulled out of the event, branding Wenders’ 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 involved in “censoring” artists who oppose Israel’s actions.