Arundhati Roy had been introduced as a competition visitor to current a restored model of the 1989 movie “In Which Annie Offers It These Ones”, by which she starred and wrote the screenplay. File
| Photograph Credit score: The Hindu
Award-winning author Arundhati Roy mentioned Friday (February 13, 2026) she was withdrawing from the Berlin Movie Competition over jury president Wim Wenders’ feedback that he wished to “keep out of politics” after being requested about Gaza.
Ms. Roy mentioned in an announcement despatched to AFP that she was “shocked and disgusted” by Mr. Wenders’ response to a query on Gaza at a press convention on Thursday (February 12, 2026). “With deep remorse, I have to say that I can’t be attending the Berlinale,” she mentioned.
Ms. Roy, whose novel “The God of Small Issues” received the 1997 Booker Prize, had been introduced as a competition visitor to current a restored model of the 1989 movie “In Which Annie Offers It These Ones”, by which she starred and wrote the screenplay.
Nevertheless, she mentioned that the “unconscionable” statements by Mr. Wenders and different jury members had led her to rethink.
“To listen to them say that artwork shouldn’t be political is jaw-dropping,” she mentioned.
When requested about Germany’s assist for Israel on the press convention on Thursday (February 12, 2026), Mr. Wenders mentioned, “We can not actually enter the sector of politics,” describing filmmakers as “the counterweight to politics”.
In her assertion, Ms. Roy described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a genocide of the Palestinian individuals by the State of Israel”.
“If the best filmmakers and artists of our time can not get up and say so, they need to know that historical past will choose them,” she mentioned.
Printed – February 14, 2026 01:52 am IST