BERLIN: A politically charged Berlin film festival opened with a movie about the Nazis’ persecution of Gypsy-jazz great Django Reinhardt and a vow by Hollywood’s Maggie Gyllenhaal that Americans were “ready to resist” President Donald Trump.
During the event, US actor Richard Gere said the “biggest crime” of Trump and European right-wing populists was to equate refugees with terrorists as it fomented hate.
A total of 18 movies are vying for the festival’s Golden Bear top prize, which will be awarded on Feb. 18 by a jury led by director Paul Verhoeven.
“I hope we will see a lot of movies that are different, hopefully controversial,” the Dutch filmmaker told reporters, adding that he was ready for “heated arguments” with the jury.
The festival’s kick-off film “Django” marks the directorial debut of Etienne Comar, a French screenwriter and producer.
A virtuoso guitarist and composer who shot to global renown with his delicate melodies, Reinhardt was a member of the Sinti minority who was forced to flee German-occupied Paris in 1943 as Gypsies were being rounded up and sent to concentration camps.
The Nazis tried to enlist Reinhardt for propaganda and morale-boosting for the troops but insisted that he strip out the “Negro sound” from his music including swing and syncopation.
He refused the German tour and, recognizing the grave threat to his clan and fellow musicians, Reinhardt, his elderly mother and pregnant wife became refugees.
However they got waylaid awaiting safe passage to Switzerland in the French border town of Thonon-les-Bains, where he was arrested by German troops, briefly imprisoned and forced to perform.
Comar told AFP that Reinhardt’s tragic aspect came from being a “character blinded by his music, who does not see the world changing, in which the war sneaks up on him and only then does he finally see what is happening.”
He admitted he took some liberties with the actual story but said its essence was true to history and the Catch-22 faced by artists under repressive regimes.
“It is the question: Do you raise your voice by continuing to play music, writing music that expresses your resistance?” he said, noting the lengthy archival work he had done to present an accurate portrait. The film stars Reda Kateb, who appeared with Viggo Mortensen in the Algeria-set war drama “Far From Men.”
Berlin film fest opens with ‘Trump resistance’
Berlin film fest opens with ‘Trump resistance’
Fans bid farewell to Japan’s only pandas
TOKYO: Panda lovers in Tokyo said goodbye on Sunday to a hugely popular pair of the bears that are set to return to China, leaving Japan without the beloved animals for the first time in half a century.
Loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” program, the distinctive black-and-white animals have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972.
Some visitors at Ueno Zoological Gardens were left teary-eyed as they watched Japan’s only two pandas Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao munch on bamboo.
The animals are expected to leave for China on Tuesday following a souring of relations between Asia’s two largest economies.
“I feel like seeing pandas can help create a connection with China too, so in that sense I really would like pandas to come back to Japan again,” said Gen Takahashi, 39, a Tokyo resident who visited the zoo with his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
“Kids love pandas as well, so if we could see them with our own eyes in Japan, I’d definitely want to go.”
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month after Japan’s conservative premier Sanae Takaichi hinted Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of any attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery took turns viewing the four-year-old twins at Ueno zoo while others gathered nearby, many sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to celebrate the moment.
Mayuko Sumida traveled several hours from the central Aichi region in the hope of seeing them despite not winning the lottery.
“Even though it’s so big, its movements are really funny-sometimes it even acts kind of like a person,” she said, adding that she was “totally hooked.”
“Japan’s going to be left with zero pandas. It feels kind of sad,” she said.
Their departure might not be politically motivated, but if pandas return to Japan in the future it would symbolize warming relations, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and expert in East Asian international relations.
“In the future...if there are intentions of improving bilateral ties on both sides, it’s possible that (the return of) pandas will be on the table,” he told AFP.
