Berlin, February 16 (EFE).- Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said this Thursday in a video message during the opening of the Berlinale that his country is today a bastion of the free world and that in the face of total war that Russia unleashed art and culture cannot remain neutral.
“Culture and cinema can remain outside of culture, but not when there is a policy of destruction and barbarism, a policy of total war. In those times, culture must make the decision to confront the evil or to remain silent and aid evil.” said Zelensky.
The moment Zelenski appeared on screen, he was greeted with a standing ovation and much of the audience rose to their feet.
At the beginning of his speech, Zelensky recalled Wim Wender’s film “Heaven over Berlin” in which the German director, he said, imaginatively brought down the wall thanks to two angels who moved freely from east to west at a time when no one thought of reuniting the city.
“Today, a place where the wall has passed is the heart of the Berlinale. Potsdamerplatz has been cut off by the wall that separated the free world from the totalitarian world,” he said.
“Today it is Russia that wants to build a wall in Ukraine, a wall between freedom and slavery, between progress and backwardness, between civilization and tyranny,” he added.
Faced with this situation, according to Zelenski, the question of whether culture can remain neutral takes on new meaning.
“For almost a year, children and women have been murdered, the world has been threatened with nuclear attack, food prices have been used as a weapon of war, can culture remain neutral in the face of that?” he asked rhetorically.
Zelensky added that the Berlinale had already taken a decision in solidarity with Ukraine and thanked him and said he was happy that the documentary “Superpower” could be seen, which testifies to the energy that Ukrainians have shown in the face of war.
“Ukraine is a bastion of the free world, a bastion that cannot fall, that protects itself and all of you,” he said.