This week Falastin Cinema Week, an alternative to the Berlinale, will take place in Refuge Worldwide and the Spore Initiative both in Neukölln. The Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) has recently faced numerous calls for a boycott from various artists and cultural workers. These calls are primarily in response to Germany’s political climate concerning the Israel-Gaza conflict and the perceived suppression of pro-Palestinian voices.
The controversy intensified during the 2024 Berlinale awards ceremony, where several filmmakers used their platform to criticize Israel’s military actions in Gaza and called for a ceasefire, including the directors of No Other Land. These statements prompted backlash from German politicians and officials, who labeled the remarks as “antisemitic” and “anti-Israel propaganda”.
We spoke with Nicky Böhm, an organiser of the Falastin Cinema Week.
The Falastin cinema week is happening at the same time as the Berlinale which received a lot of criticism last and this year for its treatment of the subject of Palestine. Do you see the cinema week as an alternative to this?
Yes absolutely. Cinema should be bold, radical and unafraid to critique political orthodoxy. It’s one of the few places where you’ve got people’s undivided attention for two hours, so there’s an enormous opportunity to convey something meaningful, to show something that makes a visceral and tangible impact. Cultural activism and boycotts are one way for us to collectively take a stance against Germany’s egregious anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism and its attempt to normalize and artwash it via cultural events such as the Berlinale.
What inspired you to create this alternative cinema week, and how does it respond to political censorship regarding Palestine?
We wanted to have something to unite around and look forward to as an antidote to continually being in opposition to something. We want to showcase the creative excellence, ingenuity and resourcefulness of Palestinian filmmaking that has been overlooked by the Berlinale. It also gives us an additional opportunity to speak out against Germany’s participation in the genocide, complicity in Israel’s human rights abuses and the ongoing military occupation through the medium of the visual arts.
Berlin is home to Europe’s largest Palestinian diaspora community and they are vilified, criminalized and scapegoated on a daily basis. It’s an incredibly hostile environment – emotionally, physically and mentally. Arabic has been banned at demonstrations, deportations are being ramped up, the political and media classes are still wedded to the xenophobic ‘imported antisemitism’ discourse, the state sanctioned police brutality has reached dystopian levels amidst widespread apathy, including among the ‘Left’. Germany’s certainly not new to practising censorship and propaganda but those not politically aligned with the state’s agenda have always found ways to circumnavigate it. It also encourages us to be intellectually curious and more resourceful when we build alternative structures.
Can you share any specific incidents of censorship that motivated the event’s creation?
The ridiculous censorship narrative and ensuing “Antisemitism Resolution” that followed the No Other Land debacle at last year’s Berlinale was a chilling reminder that Germany’s memory culture is selective and can actually endanger the lives of the Jewish people if professes to protect. There was also talk of the state interfering in the selection of jury members after No Other Land won the Berlinale Documentary Award and the Panorama Audience Award, which clearly contravenes the principle that jury members are supposed to be independent and ‘staatsfern’.
How has political censorship impacted filmmakers addressing Palestinian narratives?
I would say in two central ways. Firstly it’s really hard to get funding for anything Palestine-related, and secondly there’s a certain amount of self-censorship.There can also be a tendency for non-Palestinian filmmakers to descend into savourism or endorsing perfect victims’ narratives, which makes it so important that Palestinians tell their own stories in all their rich multiplicity.
What reaction have you received so far?
Overwhelmingly positive. It’s really heartwarming to see the new friendships that are being made, the skills and knowledge that are being shared. It’s also galvanizing to see how our diverse communities and the movement as a whole are drawing renewed strength, energy and courage from radical care and the promise of some joyful moments. Germany will never silence us.
How did you select the groups curating the cinema week? What’s gonna be shown?
They are all comrades and friends who we’ve worked with before. The cinema week would not have been possible without our community getting together and pooling resources, expertise, time and energy. It’s a real testament to DIY grassroots organizing. I’m eternally grateful for all the love and dedication that the curators have put into the programme and everyone who has helped to make this happen: Jüdische Stimme, AL.Berlin, Jewish Bund, Irish Bloc Berlin, Rawy Films, Space of Urgency, Diaspora Rising, Spore Initiative, Palinale, Teresa A. Braggs, Amal Abu Hanna, Acidfinky, House of Base, Seeding Resistance, all the filmmakers and Refuge Worldwide. It’s impossible for me to pick out any favourites so I would invite people to explore the full programme on Refuge Worldwide.
What kind of audience do you hope to reach? How do you see the power of film screening in the counter-cultural context?
I hope that people outside of our bubble will be inspired to dig deeper into Palestinian histories and join the dots with other decolonial narratives. It’s also important to question why a film festival like the Berlinale that used to have a reputation for being the most political of the major European film festivals has rolled over to become just another obedient arm of Germany’s anti-Palestinian Staaträson. What impact will that have on pluralistic discourse and how does that translate to a functioning democracy and Germany’s soft power on the international stage?
How are the sales going so far? Are there any tickets left?
Hurry while stocks last!
Are you in touch with other alternative politically engaged counter-cultural events in the context of Palestine? Is there anything else you want to say/add?
Yes, I’m in touch with Palinale, On Strike and our friends at Diaspora Rising will be taking part in the Reclaiming the Discourse event with Francesca Albanese. AL.Berlin, who are curating the second evening of Falastin Cinema Week, have brought Al Nather and Shabjeed over to play their first show at Astra next week. I think it’s brilliant that so many people are getting together and showing how strong and united we are as a movement.
Berlin is also home to one of the world’s largest diasporic Israeli communities. Although Germany likes to weaponize the painful histories of the Holocaust and the Nakba and frame Jews and Palestinians as adversaries, our anti-Zionist Jewish siblings are standing shoulder to shoulder with Palestinians resisting the state’s attempt to flatten their identities and advocating for a free Palestine together.
The movement is very vibrant, diverse and strong. Perhaps that’s what makes it so threatening. As my friend Jad Salfiti says “you need many voices in a choir and sometimes they’re not always going to harmonize”. All liberation struggles are interconnected like a mycelium web. We never know if we’ll live to see the mushroom but we are all playing our part in its spiritual creation, so we need to collectively move in the same direction and remember that this is bigger than us as individuals.
Full program and tickets are available here.
