Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy Delivers Impassioned Speech At Berlin Opening Night; Sean Penn Says Will Of The People Is “Just Getting Stronger”
deadline.comUkraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an empowered live video message to attendees of the opening night of the 73rd edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, urging filmmakers and culture “not to remain silent” when it comes to global politics as his country approaches a year since the Russian invasion.
Zelenskyy, who has made video appearances at prominent film festivals like Cannes and Venice, received a standing ovation from delegates such as Anne Hathaway, Peter Dinklage, Sean Penn and Berlinale Jury President Kristen Stewart, when he appeared on screen at the Berlinale Palast on Thursday night.
The Ukraine President drew attention to the power cinema can have in times of political turmoil, citing Wim Wenders’ 1987 Wings of Desire as a project that “broke the Berlin Wall two years before its actual fall in the outstanding film that came in Berlin where the divided city is united by angels flying freely over the wall.” He noted that while the city of Berlin once had “a wall and emptiness…now life is booming and the heart of the Berlinale beats.” He pointed out that the Potsdamer Platz, the hub of the Berlin Festival, once “divided the free world and the totalitarian.” “It is not only about state borders on the map,” he continued. “The wall divided different world views and different philosophies.” “Today, Russia wants to build the same wall in Ukraine – the wall between us and Europe to separate Ukraine from its own choice and its own future, a wall between freedom and slavery.” The local reference resonated strongly with the local audience and the international film community alike, with not a dry eye in the house.
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