After 2024 row over Gaza one-sidedness, Berlin festival to show Israeli hostage film
Documentary ‘A Letter to David’ by director Tom Shoval recalls his friendship with Hamas captive David Cunio; organizers say Arab filmmakers have sought free speech assurances
BERLIN, Germany — The Berlin Film Festival is set to screen a documentary about an Israeli actor taken hostage by Hamas, organizers said Tuesday, as it looks to move on from a row about alleged antisemitism at last year’s edition.
The documentary called “A Letter to David” by Israeli director Tom Shoval recalls his friendship and work with David Cunio who was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, during the devastating attack on Israel led by the Palestinian terror group Hamas. The assault killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and 251 people were abducted to the Gaza Strip as hostages.
The film is a “tender and deeply personal lament” from Shoval, programming co-director Michael Stutz told reporters at a press conference ahead of the February 13-23 festival.
Cunio’s fate remains unknown, with hopes raised by a recent ceasefire agreement that will see Hamas return captives and Israel release Palestinian prisoners from jails.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 46,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
The Berlin awards ceremony last year saw several filmmakers criticize Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
US filmmaker Ben Russell, wearing a Palestinian scarf, accused Israel of committing “genocide” with its bombardment of the densely populated territory.
Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra said the local population was being “massacred” by Israel, to applause from the audience.
A spokeswoman for the German government, a staunch ally of Israel, said it was “unacceptable” that the Hamas attack on Israel which triggered the war had not been mentioned at the ceremony. She said that officials would investigate the incident and that Chancellor Olaf Scholz “agrees that such a one-sided stance cannot be allowed to stand.”
Amid the widespread anger at the comments at the award ceremony, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said on social media: “Once again, the German cultural scene showcases its bias by rolling out the red carpet exclusively for artists who promote the delegitimization of Israel.”
Felix Klein, the government’s commissioner for the fight against antisemitism, told the Funke media group at the time that the “one-sided, anti-Israel statements” show “how widespread antisemitism is not only in the arts and culture scenes, but also in the film industry.”
Berlin’s mayor Kai Wegner called the remarks “unacceptable” and said that there was “no place for anti-Semitism in Berlin.”
Wegner also said that he expected new festival director Tricia Tuttle to “ensure such incidents do not happen again.”
‘Open dialogue’
Tuttle said last month that the furor had put some film directors off the festival because of free speech concerns.
“Lots of filmmakers from Arab countries have approached us as well over the last weeks, just to make sure the festival is a space for open dialogue and discourse,” she added on Tuesday.
“Where we can, we like to have individual conversations, and we’d encourage filmmakers to come to us to talk to us about this.”
South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, famed for his 2019 prize-winner “Parasite,” is set to present his new film “Mickey 17” out of competition in Berlin.
The festival has also announced that it will give a lifetime achievement award to British actor Tilda Swinton, who has collaborated with Bong in the past.
Tuttle unveiled the full lineup of films for its main competition, which includes work from American director Richard Linklater, South Korea’s Hong Sangsoo, Mexico’s Michel Franco, and Radu Jude from Romania.
Linklater is returning for the first time since 2014 when he won a director’s Silver Bear, the second-highest award, for his epic “Boyhood” which was filmed over more than a decade.
