Berlin film fest opens with ‘Trump resistance’

French-Algerian actor Reda Kateb, right, poses with Belgian actress Cecile de France during the Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin on Thursday. (Reuters)

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.”